At Forter our mission is to build trust in e-commerce by eliminating fraud for online merchants. With fraudsters continually inventing new tactics and finding new attack vectors, unrelenting innovation is critical to our success in achieving this mission.
One such innovation we launched this year is Forter’s Loyalty Program Protection product, which we are happy to announce has quickly garnered recognition by the Edison Awards – “the world’s most revered Innovation Award,” dedicated to recognizing and honoring pioneers and inventive new products. Our Loyalty Program Protection product was named a winner in the Services category, highlighted in the Retail Innovations subcategory.
In an increasingly competitive market, loyalty programs are more important than ever before. In fact, 22% of consumers shop exclusively with brands of whose loyalty programs they are members. Retailers, in turn, are building more robust rewards programs to meet this demand. As a result, the estimated value of loyalty points now tops $140 billion in the U.S. alone, making loyalty programs an incredibly attractive target for fraud.
Meanwhile, customers and merchants rarely monitor points and digital currency accrued in customer accounts, and fraud prevention in this area has lagged. Fraud attacks against loyalty programs increased by 115% in the second half of 2019 over the prior year as fraudsters turned their attention to this new target.
The result is loyalty point programs that are both more valuable and more vulnerable to opportunistic fraudsters than ever before. Fraudsters can buy account login details on the dark web and enter a customer’s account to use their points, or just buy the points directly on the dark web. These points can be used to buy gift cards, which are completely untraceable. The consumer is unhappy because their saved digital currency is gone, and merchants lose out because they bear the cost of that fraudulent transaction.
Forter Loyalty Program Protection is designed to empower merchants combatting this emerging issue, while strengthening their invaluable customer relationships. Our integrated fraud prevention platform secures every touch point across the entire customer loyalty journey – from sign up, to account access, to transfer and redemption of loyalty points. Building on the collective intelligence of our Global Merchant Network, we accurately determine the trustworthiness of each transaction and the user behind it to provide instant decisions on loyalty account authenticity based on merchants unique needs and risk appetites. We also identify and block attempts to create fake accounts, account takeovers to steal points, or exploit saved customer data (i.e. credit cards), assessing trust at every point of interaction.
Our solution enables merchants to slash loyalty fraud costs and streamline approval decisions to create a seamless customer experience. And, without worrying about loyalty fraud and abuse, merchants are free to deliver new programs and experiences that ensure their most loyal customers receive the benefits they deserve.
We’re honored that the 3,000+ business executives from around the world that chose this year’s Edison Award winners recognized Forter’s Loyalty Program Protection as one of the best products in innovation for 2020, but our mission isn’t over. We are working tirelessly to keep transactions secure and trustworthy for businesses and their customers across the globe, so you can expect even more innovative solutions from our team this year.
In the meantime, are you interested in learning more about loyalty program fraud and Forter’s Loyalty Program Protection? Download the Loyalty Fraud white paper, and check our Loyalty Program Protection solution brief.
