27th September, 2021
Fraudsters thrive by capitalizing on vulnerabilities, and expectedly were quite responsive to opportunities arising from Covid19. They managed to game the system via “creative” tactics.
As social attacks by fraudsters became more lethal, they managed to gain access to login details to commit account takeover (ATO).
Merchants must look at “vaccinating” their respective loyalty programs, asserted Michael Smith during a webinar organized by the Loyalty Security Association (LSA) recently.
Fraudsters are not brand loyal and in this context, no program isn’t immune. And the fact that consumers tend to have same passwords for multiple accounts, this compounds the problem.
So what can be done?
Interestingly, Smith recommended that the desired protection can be worked out by learning from how the virus works and how a vaccine is developed. Smith referred to the significance of collaboration (as done by merchants from the same sector or even different ones in the past via data sharing, bringing in 3rd party specialists etc.) for other types of fraud. This way merchants can monitor the situation continuously and evaluate activity reports related to loyalty fraud. “Fraud and how can accounts can be take over are very similar,” said Smith.
Identifying weak areas
Also, one should immediately look at identifying feeble areas that can result in an illegitimate activity.
Like the vaccine against Covid, take precautions in advance!
Plus, by being proactive, merchants can work out ways to offer a sublime experience. For instance, by evaluating ways to quickly and transparently establish digital identity trust, a brand can create a more seamless customer experience. Digital trust top use cases include establishing trust during initial on-boarding, frictionless and password-less login, and continuous trust validation. As explained by IBM during one of Ai’s conferences, silent security means using risk – your users’ background information and contextual data – instead of the password to authenticate, and letting your good users right in without bothering them.
Understanding data security
As recommended by Smith last month, it is time for marketers or loyalty program managers to gain a better understanding of what goes into a security protocol and defence mechanism to take better steps to curb loyalty fraud. It’s not about becoming an IT or security expert, but if a loyalty program manager asks a better question, they will get a better answer! By knowing the IT colleagues better, program managers can also better understand vulnerabilities and audit to help prevent data security issues.
By Ritesh Gupta
Ai Team
