Events

Upcoming Events

Trend Sharing Sessions/ Webinars

A monthly closed-door virtual Roundtable Session, usually held on the last Thursday of each month, to facilitate sharing among Fraud & Security personnel from hotel companies.

Please note the time due to Daylight Saving ending elsewhere but the USA.

Conferences

Past Events

In case you missed an event and would like to see who was there or what was discussed. Recordings, videos, and materials released during events or made available by hosts, participants and sponsors or request forms for these materials where available are noted on the individual event pages.

Designing Your Loyalty Program to Decrease Fraud Vulnerability

Fraudsters are targeting loyalty programs at a rapidly increasing rate, and fraud and security can no longer be an afterthought – it needs to be a prominent consideration in all aspects of the program journey.

Bond Brand Loyalty shared best practices of how to walk the fine line between a seamless customer experience while maintaining robust security measures up front in the program’s design phase, as well as how to maintain that delicate balance as the program evolves.

Inside the Mind of Fraudsters: How Bots Exploit Travel Logins

Traditional fraud prevention tools focus on downstream fraud, but effective ATO protection requires early detection and prevention. In this webinar, hosted by Kasada, we talked about the latest methods used by fraudsters to successfully conduct ATO attacks at-scale, the fraud schemes used to monetize stolen loyalty accounts, and modern techniques to predict and protect against them.

Detecting Risk Across the Customer Journey

The winner of the Lions’ Den pitching contest at our Spring Conference in London Darwinium helps us to understand the anatomy of account takeover and loyalty fraud attack patterns, and talks about the building blocks to a protection strategy.

Tackling Account Takeovers and Loyalty Program fraud and abuse. This event is the only place to meet those managing loyalty program fraud and many of the latest loyalty fraud solutions providers.

Hosted in conjunction with Airline Information’s ATPS.

Fraud Case Study

For our May Webinar, we looked at a merchant case study with Kinguin.Kinguin is the original games marketplace, with over 17M registered accounts. For this session, Kinguin’s Head of Fraud & Risk Intelligence Egemen Ertop shared how Kinguin manages to stay one step ahead of the fraudsters.

Gift Card Fraud: Project Red Hook

During this session, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and BlackHawk Network discussed Gift Card Tampering, who to turn to in law enforcement, and the recent arrests made after a wave of Gift Card Fraud.

Choosing The Right Fraud Tools

For our monthly session in March, we teamed up with the Fraud Orchestration Platform Dodgeball to discuss choosing the right fraud tools for your business.

Topics covered were the different tools available, how to identify the ones for your needs, picking the right provider, how to integrate and orchestrate your fraud prevention tools, and more.

Department of Homeland Security & Gift Card Fraud

During this session, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Justice discussed the changes in and increase of Gift Card Fraud. From Card Tampering, store placement, and taking down the Dark Marketplaces that trade in knowledge and cards, to how your Terms & Conditions can ensure they reduce fraud, and who you can turn to in Law Enforcement.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Digital Payments

Retailers and merchants should care about digital payments for several compelling reasons that can positively impact their business operations, customer satisfaction, and overall success. The overall trajectory suggests a decreasing reliance on physical currency and the engulfment of digital through the use of credit cards, direct bank payments, cryptocurrencies, CBDC, gift cards, and loyalty points.

During this webinar hosted with The Gift Club, we took a look at security, the customer experience, loyalty points in wallets, account takeovers, digital gift cards, consumer protection, convenience, and more.

Bots Unmasked: Navigating the New Frontier of Online Fraud Protection

Do you block bots from scraping, taking over accounts, or other nefarious things? Are you sure? DataDome recently released their Bot Security Reports where they found that two-thirds of the 15k+ sites they looked at didn’t have adequate fraud solutions against this exponentially growing threat.

This webinar took a look at how bots are usually leveraged, what attacks they perform, what the bots and fraudsters are looking for, and more.

Account Takeover Summit

With the rise of technology, we have AI writing content and creating/tweaking algorithms, cryptocurrencies and alternative payment methods, double and triple layers of security with 2FA or PassKeys, better bot detection (and better bots), and so much more.

Yet Account Takeovers are still the most popular (and easiest?) way for Fraudsters to get information they can sell, use, and abuse. And ATOs are on the rise year after year.

During our Fall Conference, we took a look at ATOs, KYC, Passwords, Regulations, and more.

Digital Journey Findings

Explore the ins and outs of online payment security in this session hosted with Alphacomm.

Follow the customer’s journey from account creation to completing a transaction, and learn how to spot vulnerabilities that could put your business at risk. Discover why traditional methods of fraud prevention may not be effective against new threats like Account Takeovers (ATO).

The Convergence of AI and Fraud: A New Era of Cyber Threats

AI enables fraudsters to orchestrate sophisticated and elusive activities beyond phishing and social engineering attacks.

During this webinar hosted with Kasada, we shed light on bad actors’ methods and techniques to leverage AI and bots to their advantage. We talked about how automation makes fraud faster, more scalable, and harder to detect and how this dynamic landscape challenges our traditional approaches to security.

Are Apple, Google, and Microsoft Eradicating Passwords with Passkeys?

Frank Abagnale, fraud prevention expert, bestselling author, and the subject of the Spielberg movie ‘Catch Me If You Can’, reflects on how identity thieves operate and why passwords are not just a security risk but a barrier to customer engagement. Frank was joined by members of the FIDO Alliance who explained what passkey is, its benefits, and how your digital products can offer passkey to your customers.

Identifying & Stopping Loyalty Status Fraud

We were joined by StatusMatch Co-Founder and CEO Mark Ross-Smith, who talked about why fraudsters are increasingly compromising and illicitly selling Loyalty Statuses. Topics from how they are compromised and sold (and where) to how to stop them and prevent them.

Inside the Mind of a Fraudster

For this webinar, we’ve teamed with Alphacomm who enlisted one of the world’s most renowned reformed fraudsters, Alexander Hall!

Alexander discussed methods that he used as a fraudster and how these methods are evolving and are in use today. He also shared other examples of the latest attack vectors being exploited by fraudsters and action items for companies to take home to be more secure.

Anatomy of an Account Takeover Attack

In this webinar, hosted with Kasada, we took a look at the anatomy of an account takeover attack and explored the different stages involved in the attack methodology. With a detailed understanding of the tactics, techniques, and procedures used by adversaries to gain access to accounts and compromise your security defenses.

An opportunity to gain valuable insights into ATO attacks and learn how to protect your business and customers from this growing threat.

Bringing Together Fraud Prevention & Cyber Security

We came together with the Retail & Hospitality ISAC to discuss issues that bridge the remits of both of our organizations – Fraud Prevention and Cyber Security.

How should these two silos work together within a large organization? Where should each sit in an organizational chart? Who gets the budget? All this and more related to Fraud Prevention and Cyber Security working together to secure our businesses from the bad guys was discussed by our panel of experts.

Emerging Forms: Fraud, AI, Payments

Emerging AI, payment methods, and fraud-fighting tools were the topic of conversation during our Spring 2023 conference held at the Royal College of Physicians in Regent’s Park in London on March 14th and 15th.

Held in conjunction with Airline Information’s ATPS.

Data Residency: What Loyalty Programs Need to Know

Loyalty Programs are all about the data!

From data creation and sovereignty to localization and legislation. In this session, hosted with Reward the World, the challenges of data retention and maintenance are discussed.

The Psychology of Fraud

In this riveting session, where we teamed up with The Gift Club again, an all-star panel of experts – former fraudsters, a clinical psychologist, and more- delved into the topic of the psychology of fraud and fraudsters.

Overall a fascinating deep dive into the psychological motivations behind fraud to gain insights into who is attacking your business.

Fraud from the Trenches with Calgary Hotel Association

Like many businesses, the hotel members of the Calgary Hotel Association (CHA) have recently experienced a large increase in Account Takeover Fraud.

In our December webinar, we’ll go over the types of fraud Calgary’s hotels are experiencing, and what they are doing to stop it. If you work in your organization’s headquarters, this webinar will offer an interesting perspective on fraud from the field.

How to Avoid Gift Card Fraud This Holiday Season

Gift card scams continue to be one of the most frequently reported scams to the FTC, and they are increasing every year. With the holidays fast approaching, gift cards are a great idea for gifts, but not to line the pockets of scammers.

For this 2022 Holiday Fraud Special webinar, we teamed with Alphacomm, and brought together a panel of leading experts to discuss the challenges of fraud within the industry and how to avoid them.

Global Loyalty Fraud Survey Results

The Loyalty Security Alliance recently surveyed 50 loyalty programs from around the world. During this webinar we presented results and had Michael Smith, Co-Founder, LSA, and Kevin Lee, VP of Trust & Safety, Sift, give real-life examples they have encountered or have heard about in their extensive careers, and how they were dealt with.

Topics include:

The types of fraud most affecting loyalty programs in 2022
How loyalty fraud today compares to prior surveys
What automated fraud prevention tools are being used and looked at by Loyalty Programs
and more

Account Takeovers & Program Marketing

In this session, we shared what Loyalty Program executives and marketeers need to know about the rising phenomenon of Account Takeovers (ATOs).

Covering an overview of “classic” loyalty fraud schemes and up-to-date stats on loyalty fraud, the types of crimes committed with ATOs and who the fraudster is, and prevention and remediation tips.

Securing Your Accounts

During the last few years, we have seen a shift in Fraud, expanding beyond traditional credit card fraud into Loyalty Programs, Gift Cards, PayPal, Call Centers, and more. With this, Account Takeovers have boomed.

At this event, we took a deep dive into best practices and solutions to ensure that your customers’ accounts remain secure. This includes solutions to keep your call center safe, device fingerprinting, behavioral biometrics, and techniques to detect Synthetic IDs.

Thank You!

We appreciate you joining us in person for our Spring Conference in London!

During this event, held in conjunction with Airline Information’s Airline & Travel Payments Summit (ATPS) at the Royal College of Physicians in Regents Park, we tackled new types and trends of Fraud, took a look at what is out on the Dark Web, chatted about gamification, regulations, and how to work together with payments, reward companies, and each other in the fight against Fraud.

PayPal Fraud

The LSA teamed up with Alphacomm to take a look at how you can prevent fraud with PayPal. Tips and methods to protect your high-risk digital goods in the travel and gift card industry.

Digital Wallet Fraud

In this second collaboration between the LSA and The Gift Club, we took on a hot topic for members of both our organizations: Digital Wallets.

Our panel of experts took a look at the types of Digital Wallets out there – and how they play in different industries- and their security vulnerabilities.

Call Center Loyalty Fraud

Traditional call center authentication approaches fail to stop fraudsters because they require caller engagement. To stop fraudsters before they reach the IVR or an agent, and expedite service for legitimate customers, forward-thinking call centers are adopting caller authentication technologies that do not require caller engagement.

Lance Hood, Neustar ’s Senior Director of Omni-Channel Solutions discussed ways to mitigate risk of financial loss, customer frustration, and operational waste in the call center.

Cyber Security Roundtable

In this limited access session, the LSA and Comarch facilitated an open discussion for Loyalty Program operators on Cyber Security. The goal of these forums is to connect industry colleagues to freely share trends, threats, and solutions in a safe environment that is not recorded.

Gift Card Fraud

In this session led by Gift Card and Gift Card Fraud experts, we will discuss how to keep these programs safe from fraudsters and gamers. With the peak holiday season just behind us, we’ll take a look back and provide takeaways for securing Gift Cards better in the future, and go over things to expect as cards still get cashed in.

Managing False Positives

Our own Chris Staab recently ran into an issue with a False Positive on his business account for a car rideshare app. His use of credits as an incentive flagged it as suspected fraud, and he could not get it resolved even though it was legitimate activity.

Are you chasing away good business due to false positives? In this session we have a recent case study and discuss with experts how to best manage false positives to stop the fraudsters, and retain good customers.

Fraud 3.0: Prevent, Protect, Plan

Just as we can no longer fight fraud in isolation between organizations, neither can we fight fraud in a vacuum of a department; IT, Marketing, Sales, Fraud, Payments, Management, we must all work together.

During our Fall Conference 2021, we took a look at new fraud trends, innovative fraud solutions, and ways to make sure loyalty is secure.

Do you know if your company’s or customer’s data is compromised and what to do if it is?

In this virtual pre-session of our Fall Conference 2021 Jon Inns, Co-Founder & CEO, Threat Status talks about Credential Stuffing and how to prevent it, as well as about the PII available on Dark Web Marketplaces.

In this third session of our Intro to Loyalty Fraud series aimed at those with some experience, we touched upon the importance of collaboration, not just between those in the same industry but beyond as well, to help uncover patterns and evaluate fraud activity. Other important factors to immunize against fraud include making sure to identify weak spots, especially those in the consumer-facing side of the programs, and the importance of program understanding by marketers and managers. If they have a better understanding of what goes into a security protocol, the can ask better questions and help prevent data security issues.

How to prevent and detect if your program is vulnerable to fraud

In this session aimed at Loyalty Program executives, staff, and newcomers, Michael Smith, Co-Founder, LSA, talked about 5 key methods and tips on how to keep your Loyalty Program secure. Followed by a chat and Q&A session with Zach Blank, Account Security Consultant, Riskified.

An introduction to Loyalty Fraud

It could be some of your best customers, your loyal staff or partners, or organized crime; who is trying to defraud your program?

In this session, Michael Smith, Co-Founder, LSA, talked about some of the Who and the What of Loyalty Fraud. From the main types of Loyalty Fraudsters, types of fraud – from “traditional” fraud by customers to sophisticated ATOs – to tools and tips on how to keep your program safe.

With surprise guest Mark Ross-Smith, CEO, StatusMatch.

Open Discussion for Merchants

In this closed forum loyalty systems provider Comarch hosted an open discussion for merchants. We touched upon cybersecurity, the impact of Loyalty Fraud, where Fraud sits in organizations, and other topics on the mind of the attendees.

The success of the session, indicated by questions, participation, and the length that the roundtable ran, indicates that connecting with industry colleagues to discuss trends, threats, and solutions is desired. We hope to host another Merchant Loyalty Session again.

Breach Awareness & Credential Stuffing

In a poll taken during this session, 64% of participants find Credential Stuffing a growing problem, and 28% weren’t sure if or how they were impacted.

Digital risk monitory company Threat Status expounds on their Arc (credential stuffing protection offering) solution in this session.

Return to Normal: 5 Must-Do’s

Forter’s Stuart Barwood, Director Global Airline, and the LSA’s own Chris Staab, President & Co-Founder, discussed 5 things Fraud Departments must do as business returns to normal.

Issues that were touched upon are:

- Aligning your fraud department with commercial objectives
- Staying ahead of Post-COVID promotions
- Turning Fraud Prevention into a Revenue rather than a cost
- Obtaining Management Buy-In for your (Loyalty) Fraud Prevention
- Ensuring new touchless technology doesn’t invite the Fraudsters

Preparing for the Unknown: Fraud & ATOs during Covid

2020 showed us lower fraud attacks and losses (seemingly), especially in the travel industry. Account Takeovers (ATOs) were up though, and the number of publicized data breaches, including social media platforms, didn’t slow down. The reduced volume of sales due to Covid made it harder for fraudsters to hide their criminal activity.

Then we saw an increase in fraud towards the end of 2020.

So, what does this mean for fraud in 2021? How have the fraudsters evolved? How can we prepare for defending our businesses and our customers’ accounts in uncharted market conditions? We explored these questions and many more related to keeping loyalty programs secure during our Spring Conference 2021 – Virtual Event.

Loyalty Fraud in a Post-COVID World: What can we learn from the rest of the world?

The turbulence of 2020 on the travel industry may be beginning to subside. The lack of fraud losses due to reduced sales may have created a false sense of security for what fraudsters have in store as the travel industry begins to bounce back post-pandemic.

Forter‘s Director Global Airline Strategy, Stuart Barwood and, Senior Product Marketing Manager, Daniel Shkedi, discussed how you can prepare to defend your bottom line while reducing fraud attacks and protecting customer loyalty.

Panel: COVID-19 Passports, A Fraudster’s Treasure Trove?

After the contact tracking apps, we are now seeing the emergence of the COVID-19 Passport. An electronic account linked to individuals containing personal information and proof of vaccination or negative test results, which with green checks can grant more movement: access to restaurants, theatres, (sporting) events, and more, and they will most likely become required for air travel.

Our panel took a look at how these passports are set up, whether they will be required for travel, how a pass in use functions, and the security aspects of the passports and the information it holds.

A Dive into the Dark Web with Sift

As our lives moved online in 2021, prominent breaches at Marriott, Carnival Cruise Lines, and others in the travel industry and beyond showcase the rise of bad actors leveraging Account Takeovers (ATO). In fact, some ATO rates surged nearly 400% since the start of the pandemic.

As bad actors constantly adapt tactics to commit ATO, risk teams must strike a balance between mitigating risk and reducing friction for legitimate customers.

Kevin Lee, Trust and Safety Architect at Sift, among other things, showed some recent listings on the Dark Web, discussed what steps companies can take to mitigate their exposure, and even touched on a formula to quantify the cost of an Account Takeover.

Status Match Fraud

This free session was the first in a new series from the LSA where we’ll share new and exciting products that were designed to keep your Loyalty Program Secure. We are offering Lions’ Den competitors an opportunity to present their solutions more in-depth and allow for the audience to ask questions.

We kicked things off with noted loyalty program expert, Mark Ross-Smith, CEO of Loyalty Data Co as we took a look at their Status Matching product, which both stops status matching fraud and generates ancillary revenue for the Program.