With the rise of internet gambling, the number of people looking to commit fraud against bookmakers has increased. To stay ahead of the game new and innovative technology needs to be employed to avoid the negative impact of affiliate programme fraudsters on a business.
An expert from international online betting holding Parimatch explains how it tackles fraudulent behavior.
Why do online gambling businesses, in particular, attract fraudulent behavior?
The main aim of fraudsters in affiliate programmes is to earn money, even if it is illegal. These fraudulent programmes attract low-quality traffic which bookmakers are paying for up until the business can identify that the traffic is not genuine.
How is it possible to identify a fraudster from a legitimate customer?
Affiliate programme fraudsters are divided into two types – “multi-accounting” and “bonus hunting.”
Multi-accounting is the act of creating multiple accounts by one person. Usually, after registration and the first deposit – account activity diminishes. The bookmaker pays for each account created, so the generation of more than one account per user is a financial loss for the business.
Bonus hunters are users who only play bonus-based games. As soon as they cash their bonus in, their account activity reduces to zero.
Is it possible for a business to protect itself from this kind of fraudulent behavior?
It is possible. Bookmakers should look to analyze and identify user behavior patterns in the early stages, to identify any potential fraudulent account activity.
What does Parimatch do to protect itself from these kinds of fraudsters?
In addition to using automated fraud detection programmers, Parimatch employs specialists whose primary task is to pre-assess the quality of each account created. The exact details of this process are confidential.
Looking to the future, Parimatch plans to implement “fingerprint technology,” which can detect the unique online “imprint” of internet users. Thanks to this innovative technology, it will be possible to track and act against large scale fraudsters.
Is it possible to completely stop any fraudulent activity?
Unfortunately, it is impossible to eradicate low-quality traffic in affiliate programmes completely. If there is a way to earn easy money, fraudsters will always find it.
The best a business can do to protect itself is to detect anomalies in user behavior as early as possible.
