September Trend Sharing Session

Fraud thrives by capitalizing on vulnerabilities, including opportunities created due to the pandemic. Social engineering, creative tactics, and mass account takeovers mixed with consumers re-using passwords are a lethal combination. Merchants should look at “vaccinating” their Loyalty Programs according to Michael Smith, Co-Founder of the LSA.

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, they can ask better questions and help prevent data security issues.

Topics touched upon:

• Collaboration
  • Making sure departments work together
  • Data sharing within the industry
  • Working with customers and partners to identify weak entry points
• Mutation
  • Constant mutation of Fraud=Constant  battle against Fraud
  • Fraudsters only need to get lucky once, your Loyalty Program needs to be “lucky” all the time, how?
• Consequences
  • There is no herd immunity for Fraud
  • Side effects of security measures: clients, costs, and complacency