Holiday Havoc: Navigating the surge in online fraud during the festive season
By Saminu Salisu, co-founder of Bilic
Saminu Salisu
With the holiday season fast approaching, retailers are preparing for the influx of shoppers as well as skillful fraudsters. Black Friday and Cyber Monday, traditionally known for budget busting deals and bustling stores are gearing up for record-breaking online sales. Not only do retailers have to ensure they are offering the best deals, but they also need to outsmart the fraudsters.
How fraud-predicting AI can outwit a fraudster
Black Friday and Cyber Monday events are likened to shopping contests where the stakes are high, the competition intense and fraudsters a plenty. An increase in frictionless commerce and one click checkout has made addressing holiday season peaks in fraud even more complex for merchants. There is a fine line between protecting and securing a shopper. By implementing additional 2FA/MFA authentication may lead to increased friction for shoppers that results in high rates of cart abandonments causing financial damage to merchants. However, by putting even more stringent rules in place could lead to customers being declined wrongfully, which in turn significantly hurts shopper experience and causes harm to the merchant’s reputation. In such a scenario merchants must take preventive actions utilizing AI that does not create additional friction for customers or increase false positives. Some of these include detecting unusual transactions, conducting consumer due diligence, providing smart solutions, or assessing risk, and preventing money laundering activities.
By using an AI model that is tailored for processing sequential data, such as conversations, unusual purchase patterns or suspicious account behaviour, it is possible to spot patterns indicative of fraud. This gives businesses the upper hand in preventing fraudulent transactions and providing a safe shopping experience for their customers.
Future-proofing the holiday season with AI
Imagine in the future that AI becomes more intuitive, persistently advancing to stay a step ahead of fraudsters. As technology develops, AI will continue to revolutionise these holiday sales events by creating a more secure shopping environment. While shoppers can enjoy a seamless and stress-free shopping experience, retailers will be furnished with the latest tools and insights to protect their profits and reputation.
A mix of high demand, first-time customers would lead to seasonal increases in phishing, malware, and fraud attempts during this holiday season. To avoid fraud losses, costly chargebacks, and false declines, it is essential to have a robust fraud prevention system in place. Bilic, an AI-Driven platform creating synthetic agents that support counter fraud, security, and smart verification for financial compliance by tracking, analysing, and investigating financial activities, and a member of the Intel® Liftoff for Startups program, is ideal for merchants wanting to protect themselves during the hectic holiday season. By harnessing the power of Large Language Models, Bilic has built agents that “think” and “act” as security and compliance officers. In a matter of seconds, these agents can absorb and assess financial datasets from multiple sources, perform analysis, and execute tasks. By using AI to combat fraud, retailers are always one step ahead as the technology accurately predicts a fraudster’s next move. Wishing all retailers good tidings for the holidays!
