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Every day, fraudsters attack someone's business and use various forms of fraud for this - be it click-through advertising, hacking infrastructure or DDoS. Business processes are paralyzed, customer loyalty decreases, lawsuits are filed.
Special anti-fraud systems help combat fraudulent attacks. They are designed to detect suspicious activity on the network, analyze actions, and prevent attacks. What they are and how they help businesses, we tell you in this article.
Contents
1. What is fraud?
2. What types of fraud are there?
2.1. DDoS attacks
2.2. Banking "divorce"
2.3 Digital Advertising Fraud
2.4. Fake calls and requests
2.5. Boosting malicious traffic to websites
3. What is an antifraud system?
4. How it works
5. Why do businesses need them?
Fraud is a huge problem for businesses, causing huge financial losses, reputational damage and stagnation. Not only brands are at risk, but also their customers.
For example:
Cybercriminals use phishing emails, social engineering, malware and spyware, botnets and automated scripts, hacking, etc. as tools and technologies . With their help, they gain access to other people's data and perform malicious actions.
The purpose of such attacks is to eliminate competitors, extort, politicized cyber wars, hacktivism, etc. To organize it, attackers first “build” a botnet from devices infected with malware, and then give them a command to attack the necessary resources.
As the main tool for deceiving ordinary users and committing financial fraud, fraudsters rely on social engineering - a powerful tool of psychological pressure. People voluntarily and forcibly transfer money to the accounts of fraudsters under the threat of losing all their savings.
The goal of the scammers in this case is to make money by deceiving advertisers and advertising platforms. For example, according to a rough estimate by cybersecurity experts, with the help of the Methbot and 3ve botnets, which generated fake video ad views, scammers were able to earn over $36 million between 2014 and 2018.
Digital advertising fraud is considered the least risky form of fraud because it is very difficult to detect who is behind such attacks. Therefore, click fraud is one of the most common forms of advertising fraud that affects businesses around the world.
To click, attackers can use bots, botnets, click farms and any automated software. In addition to them, competitors and performers from exchanges (at the request of competitors and site owners) click on advertisements.
Fraudsters can create complex fraudulent schemes to illegally enrich themselves on advertising. For example, we recently reported on the Camu scheme, when fraudsters created a whole group of sites to launder pirated content through advertising. To do this, the fraudsters created separate front-end resources, masked domains, and used a complex system of displaying content using tokens and introducing their cookies into users' browsers.
Malicious applications often appear on the Google Play Store and App Store (less often). Attackers use them not only to gain unauthorized access to user data, but also to fake advertising traffic. Cybercriminals use first-click injection technology, generate fake app installations, and inflate ad views.
For example, so that the bot would visit a site based on certain advertisements, navigate through the pages and spend a certain amount of time before making a call or filling out an application form.
This increases the workload of sales departments, reduces the time for processing real requests and leads to financial losses.
It leads to such negative consequences as a drop in search engine rankings, blocking of advertising networks, slowdowns, and even loss of user trust.
According to data from the Russian service StormWall, the total volume of bot traffic in Russia from January to August 2024 increased by 83% compared to the same period last year.
Fraudsters create bots (scripts), give them a list of keywords that they should enter into the search results, tell them which sites they should or should not visit. In this way, bots "build up" their profiles and get the cookies and search history they need. After that, the bots will have to wind up behavioral factors on the promoted sites.
The list of types and kinds of fraud is quite extensive, as cybercriminals try to squeeze the maximum out of any monetary channels. They find new ways to commit fraud and illegal enrichment at the expense of businesses and ordinary users.
Modern anti-fraud systems take into account many parameters when assessing traffic and user interactions with a website or application: payment amounts, unique bank card tokens, digital traces of devices, IP addresses, purchase histories, behavior on the website, etc.
What tools and data can they use:
— Analysis of accounting data
It provides information about the user's history of using credentials such as logins, passwords, and other authorization data. It answers the questions "has this data been recently compromised" and "has this data been used by fraudsters on other sites." With a focus on the security and integrity of user credentials, these solutions help identify and prevent fraudulent activities related to compromised credentials, unauthorized access, and account hijacking.
— Device analysis
Collection and analysis of data about user devices used to log into an account, visit resources, conduct transactions, etc. This information includes device characteristics, attributes, and user behavior. It is used to create unique digital footprints and remember the user's location when logging in.
For example, many of us have encountered messages like these from fraud detection systems in mail services when we logged into mail on a new device:
— Behavioral biometrics
Involves analyzing metrics of user interaction with the device. Biometric data may include behavioral information about keystroke dynamics or mouse movements, as well as passive monitoring of biometric sensors such as fingerprint scanners or facial recognition cameras.
— Detecting bots and managing fraudulent traffic
The bot traffic detection and management function is aimed at identifying and stopping the actions of malicious automated scripts. This allows you to determine whether a real user is requesting access to the system or not.
The primary purpose of fraud detection by such systems is to proactively identify and stop fraudulent activities in order to minimize financial losses, protect assets, maintain the integrity of transactions, and ensure regulatory compliance.
Detecting fraud is critical because it can lead to:
In some business sectors, the lack of anti-fraud systems can lead to legal sanctions and fines when it comes to personal customer data or funds. Protecting sensitive information from fraudulent access or theft is an important component of overall cybersecurity.
Special anti-fraud systems help combat fraudulent attacks. They are designed to detect suspicious activity on the network, analyze actions, and prevent attacks. What they are and how they help businesses, we tell you in this article.
Contents
1. What is fraud?
2. What types of fraud are there?
2.1. DDoS attacks
2.2. Banking "divorce"
2.3 Digital Advertising Fraud
2.4. Fake calls and requests
2.5. Boosting malicious traffic to websites
3. What is an antifraud system?
4. How it works
5. Why do businesses need them?
What is fraud?
You are called and asked to renew the contract for using a phone number, a colleague received a letter asking to confirm their login details for the corporate system, you receive fake requests from the site, you are faced with a data leak - all this is fraud, or digital fraud.Fraud is a huge problem for businesses, causing huge financial losses, reputational damage and stagnation. Not only brands are at risk, but also their customers.
For example:
- In 2023, the advertising campaign of one of our clients with a monthly budget of 10 million rubles was subject to click fraud. Because of this, the client lost up to 2 million rubles per month. After connecting the Botfaqtor anti-fraud system, the Yandex Direct Protection tool, we managed to reduce the level of fraud.
- In January 2024, a major cyberattack on the online project management and collaboration tool Trello occurred, resulting in the leak of 15 million user accounts.
- In May of the same year, the courier company SDEK was subjected to a major fraud attack. Because of it, the company's application and website, as well as parcel pick-up and drop-off points, stopped working. In general, business processes were completely paralyzed. Ukrainian hackers from the Head Mare group claimed responsibility for the attack.
Cybercriminals use phishing emails, social engineering, malware and spyware, botnets and automated scripts, hacking, etc. as tools and technologies . With their help, they gain access to other people's data and perform malicious actions.
What types of fraud are there?
Here are the types of fraud that companies around the world face on a daily basis:DDoS attacks
This is a distributed denial-of-service attack. Cybercriminals overload a website or server with malicious traffic, causing the attacked resource to either completely fail, displaying an error when visited, or significantly slow down the loading and display of content.The purpose of such attacks is to eliminate competitors, extort, politicized cyber wars, hacktivism, etc. To organize it, attackers first “build” a botnet from devices infected with malware, and then give them a command to attack the necessary resources.
Banking "scam"
"You need to activate your card", "Your money may be stolen, it needs to be transferred to another account", "You have received a payment from the state" - this is it. According to the Central Bank, in the first quarter of 2024, the number of fraudulent banking transactions increased by almost 17% compared to the same period last year. The volume of theft of funds through the Fast Payment System doubled, and through electronic payments - by 40%.As the main tool for deceiving ordinary users and committing financial fraud, fraudsters rely on social engineering - a powerful tool of psychological pressure. People voluntarily and forcibly transfer money to the accounts of fraudsters under the threat of losing all their savings.
Digital Advertising Fraud
Fraudsters operate in any channels of business promotion: advertising on search, in advertising networks, on video hosting sites, including streaming services and CTV, mobile applications. Cybercriminals generate fake clicks on advertising and inflate video views.The goal of the scammers in this case is to make money by deceiving advertisers and advertising platforms. For example, according to a rough estimate by cybersecurity experts, with the help of the Methbot and 3ve botnets, which generated fake video ad views, scammers were able to earn over $36 million between 2014 and 2018.
Digital advertising fraud is considered the least risky form of fraud because it is very difficult to detect who is behind such attacks. Therefore, click fraud is one of the most common forms of advertising fraud that affects businesses around the world.
To click, attackers can use bots, botnets, click farms and any automated software. In addition to them, competitors and performers from exchanges (at the request of competitors and site owners) click on advertisements.
Fraudsters can create complex fraudulent schemes to illegally enrich themselves on advertising. For example, we recently reported on the Camu scheme, when fraudsters created a whole group of sites to launder pirated content through advertising. To do this, the fraudsters created separate front-end resources, masked domains, and used a complex system of displaying content using tokens and introducing their cookies into users' browsers.
Malicious applications often appear on the Google Play Store and App Store (less often). Attackers use them not only to gain unauthorized access to user data, but also to fake advertising traffic. Cybercriminals use first-click injection technology, generate fake app installations, and inflate ad views.
Fake calls and applications
Spam calls and fake requests for services are a technology in which attackers create special automated scripts and assign them specific patterns and algorithms of behavior to carry out attacks on competitors’ resources or advertising.For example, so that the bot would visit a site based on certain advertisements, navigate through the pages and spend a certain amount of time before making a call or filling out an application form.
This increases the workload of sales departments, reduces the time for processing real requests and leads to financial losses.
Boosting malicious traffic to websites
This is a method of artificially increasing the number of site visits using bots and special scripts. This can be behavioral factor manipulation, profile fattening (when a bot must accumulate certain cookies and search history), malicious attacks, etc.It leads to such negative consequences as a drop in search engine rankings, blocking of advertising networks, slowdowns, and even loss of user trust.
According to data from the Russian service StormWall, the total volume of bot traffic in Russia from January to August 2024 increased by 83% compared to the same period last year.
Fraudsters create bots (scripts), give them a list of keywords that they should enter into the search results, tell them which sites they should or should not visit. In this way, bots "build up" their profiles and get the cookies and search history they need. After that, the bots will have to wind up behavioral factors on the promoted sites.
The list of types and kinds of fraud is quite extensive, as cybercriminals try to squeeze the maximum out of any monetary channels. They find new ways to commit fraud and illegal enrichment at the expense of businesses and ordinary users.
What is an antifraud system?
Anti-fraud systems (from the English anti-fraud — “fight against fraud”) are special software designed to prevent fraudulent transactions. Banks, large payment systems, online stores, social networks already use fraud monitoring systems to protect data, detect and prevent attacks. They also help protect online gaming services and mobile applications from fraudulent transactions, and advertising — from click fraud.Modern anti-fraud systems take into account many parameters when assessing traffic and user interactions with a website or application: payment amounts, unique bank card tokens, digital traces of devices, IP addresses, purchase histories, behavior on the website, etc.
How it works
Anti-fraud services can consist of three levels of information processing: detection, analysis of received data and threat prevention. Artificial intelligence and machine learning can be used in the operation of such systems.What tools and data can they use:
— Analysis of accounting data
It provides information about the user's history of using credentials such as logins, passwords, and other authorization data. It answers the questions "has this data been recently compromised" and "has this data been used by fraudsters on other sites." With a focus on the security and integrity of user credentials, these solutions help identify and prevent fraudulent activities related to compromised credentials, unauthorized access, and account hijacking.
— Device analysis
Collection and analysis of data about user devices used to log into an account, visit resources, conduct transactions, etc. This information includes device characteristics, attributes, and user behavior. It is used to create unique digital footprints and remember the user's location when logging in.
For example, many of us have encountered messages like these from fraud detection systems in mail services when we logged into mail on a new device:
— Behavioral biometrics
Involves analyzing metrics of user interaction with the device. Biometric data may include behavioral information about keystroke dynamics or mouse movements, as well as passive monitoring of biometric sensors such as fingerprint scanners or facial recognition cameras.
— Detecting bots and managing fraudulent traffic
The bot traffic detection and management function is aimed at identifying and stopping the actions of malicious automated scripts. This allows you to determine whether a real user is requesting access to the system or not.
Why do businesses need them?
Fraud detection is the process of identifying and preventing fraudulent activity in applications, APIs, systems, websites, advertising, etc. It involves using various methods and technologies to monitor actions and analyze user behavior. Patterns and anomalies are identified, which trigger the system to block invalid visits or transactions.The primary purpose of fraud detection by such systems is to proactively identify and stop fraudulent activities in order to minimize financial losses, protect assets, maintain the integrity of transactions, and ensure regulatory compliance.
Detecting fraud is critical because it can lead to:
- significant financial losses for individuals and organizations;
- disruption or complete collapse of business processes;
- reputational damage.
In some business sectors, the lack of anti-fraud systems can lead to legal sanctions and fines when it comes to personal customer data or funds. Protecting sensitive information from fraudulent access or theft is an important component of overall cybersecurity.
