Anti-Fraud Support for Online Casinos

2020 saw the sharpest spike in online gambling than ever before, as pandemic lockdowns propelled people to seek out activities from within their homes. Gambling sites were among various outlets that profited tremendously during this period.

Unfortunately, as more and more individuals become engaged in the activity, criminals have also been quick to take advantage. The prevalence of online fraud has risen by a staggering 300% over recent years due to surging internet usage.

The online fraud prevention industry is an ever-growing multi-billion dollar entity, pushing more business entrepreneurs to secure their operations.

In today's internet age, it is paramount for gambling websites to safeguard their business and patrons from any potential fraudulent activities associated with online gambling.

What Is Online Gambling Fraud?

Cybercriminals increasingly turn to online gambling fraud to gain an advantage over gaming operators. From creating multiple accounts, abusing bonuses and affiliate programs, laundering money, or engaging in the grey area of arbitrage, criminals can employ various malicious activities.

As fraud analysts, we use the term gambling fraud to refer to any malicious or illegal practices undertaken by professional or amateur con artists to obtain money, bonuses, or other benefits from a virtual gaming site while aiding other forms of fraud.

Most Common Types of Online Gambling Scams

Despite fraudsters constantly inventing new ways to take advantage of the system, particular attack tactics commonly occur and should be monitored closely.

• Multi-accounting: These fraudulent activities form the basis of countless malicious schemes in online gambling - scammers construct numerous accounts and use fake credentials to gain the upper hand. This allows them to execute their plans, such as the following ones.
• Bonus abuse: While offering promotional deals, such as signup bonuses and coupons, is an effective way to draw in new customers, too much of it can lead your platform down a path toward financial losses. Fake accounts are particularly adept at taking advantage of these special offers; they often reap the rewards without contributing any value to you or your business.
• Gnoming: It's a general practice in games like poker to stack the deck in your favor using multiple accounts. One of these accounts is used to win, while the others are set up expressly to lose so that you can reap all the rewards without risk or competition.
• Chip dumping: Yet another form of dishonesty in poker games. This fraudulent practice is similar to game rigging, where multiple accounts are created and join the same table to unfairly influence outcomes in favor or against a particular player.

Payment Attacks

As a form of a digital wallet, online casinos and gambling websites demand deposits and withdrawals before gameplay; thus, there is potential for losses when processing payments.

• Carding: By leveraging stolen credit card details, fraudsters can effectively fill their accounts with illicit funds and use them to catapult themselves into large-scale financial gains.
• Chargebacks: After a stolen credit card has been used on your platform, the rightful owner will likely take note and demand a chargeback from their banking institution or credit card provider. Unfortunately, this means that your business will have to bear the cost of reimbursement plus any processing fees.
• Phone top-up abuse: Online casinos that accept phone top-ups can be prime targets for social engineering and phishing scams. Cybercriminals employ various schemes to solicit unsuspecting victims into funding their gaming accounts through a phone payment, thereby directly placing the money in the fraudster's possession.

Ultimately, just like traditional casinos, online gambling owners must be conscious of their potential for money laundering. Any business that processes large sums of money can quickly become a vehicle for criminals to launder illegally obtained funds; unfortunately, casinos are an ideal destination for them.

Stop Online Gambling Fraud!

Adhering to good KYC (Know Your Customer) practices is essential to protect your online business from fraudulent activity. This means investing in a modern fraud detection software solution that meets the necessary KYC requirements and offers extra protection against the risks of operating an online gambling sector. By doing this, you can ensure maximum safety for both yourself and your customers.

To make sure you meet compliance regulations and prevent fraud, the following measures should be taken at every point of onboarding and beyond:

• ID verification with government-issued documents, depending on the current legal regulations of your region.
• Age Verification
• PEP (Politically Exposed Persons) checks and other AML-enforced examinations are essential for ensuring compliance, such as verifying all applicable sanctions lists, watchlists, and crime lists.
• As you welcome new users to your platform, you must assess their intentions and fraud score during sign-up.
• Device fingerprinting has evidenced itself to be the most reliable instrument for thwarting collusive behavior like bonus abuse and chip dumping, as multi-account abusers typically make use of their conniving accounts from one single device.
• Hash analysis was the most efficient way to detect fraud, as those engaging in multi-accounting abuse will rarely create unique passwords for each fraudulent account created. Even the savviest of cybercriminals can be caught with this technique!
• Understand an individual's digital footprint by researching their legitimate emails and phone numbers. These are often associated with multiple social media accounts or other online profiles, providing insight into the person behind them.
• IP address fraud score analysis - much like device fingerprinting, can reveal critical information regarding an individual's internet habits, whereabouts, and the risk of the conniving activity.

What Tools Do You Need?

To combat online gambling scams, one must realize that cross-referencing enormous amounts of data is too much for an individual to handle; thus, fraud managers should seek third-party solutions.

Imagine having access to a wide array of technological tools that can be combined into one complete software program. This tech-savvy package will include functionality and touchpoints such as the following:

• Log-in monitoring
• ID verification
• PEP (politically exposed persons) lists
• Anti-money laundering (AML) tools
• Withdrawal and deposit monitoring
• Actual games and tables monitoring
• Sign-up (onboarding) monitoring

How Does Fraud Affect an Online Gambling Site?

Fraud has a profound detrimental impact on the legitimacy of online gambling sites, and its consequences are widely experienced by all types of digital businesses.

• Loss of revenue: From wasting valuable time pursuing fraudulent players to losing out on bonuses and paying for chargebacks, fraud is an expensive nightmare for operators.
• Bad reputation with payment processors: Payment processors have already marked online gambling sites as high-risk, so it is essential to manage your chargeback rate or you could be barred from their network. Without access to payment networks, players wouldn't be able to deposit using their preferred method; which would ultimately crush your business.
• Waste of resources: When you examine the significant amount of time your team devotes to chasing down fraudulent activity and developing improved procedures that reduce risk, it becomes evident that fraud has far-reaching implications beyond monetary losses.
• Overwhelmed customer support: The malicious activities of fraudsters can often lead to complaints from customers, placing a substantial burden on your customer service team. When inundated with requests, it's easy for the support staff to become overwhelmed and unable to keep up.
• Compliance issues: It is widely known that regulators are becoming more stringent with online gambling sites. If fraud or players who have self-excluded themselves from the site go unnoticed, you could be subjected to hefty fines and legal consequences alike.
• Reduced customer satisfaction: If you fail to address fraud issues for honest customers, it will likely damage their view of your company and could drive them away from your business in favor of a competitor.

Especially in the arena of multiplayer games, regulating fraud is pertinent. Those online gambling sites that offer gaming such as internet poker will eventually witness a decrease in their live user count if they neglect to manage fraud at the tables.

Why Is Online Gambling at Increased Risk of Scams?

With continued advancements in technology and the growing number of gamblers turning to online gambling, fraudsters are able to discover more avenues for taking advantage of vulnerable systems. Our research revealed that there is an immense discrepancy between regions with regard to both the volume and type of fraud prevalent within the online gambling industry.

The risk of malicious sign-up attempts varies across regions, ranging from a 38% difference in sophistication and complexity. Therefore, operators must be well-equipped to handle the unique requirements associated with each area they operate within.

The online gaming industry is a highly competitive space, so striking the delicate balance between capturing new players and managing risk all while keeping your current ones contented can be an exceptionally daunting task.

How Can Merchants Prevent Online Gambling Fraud?

When it comes to online gambling, fraudsters always seem to be lurking in the shadows. But don't worry! You can take steps that will drastically reduce your chances of encountering any fraudulent activity. One key principle is understanding who your customers are; this way, they won't use their own or anyone else's credit cards for multiple accounts and you'll have an easier time resolving chargeback attempts. With these measures in place, you can guarantee a safer atmosphere for everyone involved with regard to online gambling risks.

To ensure accurate customer identification, there are a variety of methods that can be employed.

• Strong passwords and two-factor authentication. Implementing this system renders it far more difficult for scammers to breach other people's accounts.
• Identity verification services. Streamline authentication and optimize security with identity verification services. The technology identifies user data such as IP address, email, and geolocation for a comprehensive layer of protection.
• Implement fraud prevention software. To protect against fraudulent activity, it is essential to deploy software with the capability of assessing user risk based on browser behavior. If a user's actions trigger any red flags, then appropriate measures can quickly be taken to prevent potential harm.

Browser fingerprinting is a powerful technique for preventing online scams. By producing digital fingerprints, you can observe every single person who visits your website and track their browsing activity over time – even if they use a VPN or go into private mode! This makes it much easier to recognize fraudsters attempting to conceal themselves.

Anti-Fraud Team - iGaming Kitties

Above all else, business depends on user trust and developing relationships with the players. Without this assurance of safety and fairness, customers can turn to many competitors instead. Putting measures in place to inhibit fraudulence while showing the players you're looking out for them is sure to positively affect your long-term success.

Our Anti-Fraud Team has taken their already professional-grade training and added a social responsibility component, further demonstrating their commitment to protecting against fraud.

This training equipped the Anti-Fraud Team to proactively address gambling-related harm and escalated safer gambling issues with enhanced communication skills.

iGaming Kitties offers comprehensive anti-fraud support services for online casinos via its multi-function department dedicated to providing exceptional client assistance.

Our team is constantly looking to hone their expertise and put it into action instantly. The Anti-Fraud group discovered how to respond to customers' inquiries on gambling matters as well as how to develop relationships founded on people's behavior.

We are driven by the desire for excellence in all that we do. We commit to offering unparalleled security and expertise as part of the service package because your satisfaction is of utmost importance to us.