Putting web fraud in the crosshairs for social gaming
To a web fraudster, attacking a social game like Farmville or Mobsters 2 isn’t just fun—it’s profitable. There’s serious money in scamming the virtual goods world as evidenced by industry research cited in this new article posted today on GameBeat, co-written by web fraud experts Jeff Sawitke, Verifi vice president product strategy and Alisdair Faulkner, ThreatMetrix chief products officer.
Cybercriminals know to match their tactics to the target—and social gaming is no exception. Here are some typical scenarios where the right fraud defenses can trip up fraudsters trying to game an online game. Whereas a typical good customer uses one account from one computer, a fraudster would try to create and manage a half dozen accounts from a single computer—tipping his hand so that his computer can be flagged as suspicious and/or barred from playing. Besides the obvious losses from a fraudster/gamer using stolen credit cards, there is the downstream risk to the game publisher for chargebacks. In this example, a gamer might be a gold farmer—this is a standard term for a player who tries to acquire items of value in a game to sell or trade for real currency. They typically accomplish this by repeatedly (and rapidly) performing in-game actions that accumulate gains. Automation with bots comes in handy here to get the most bang for the buck in as little time as possible. Here the scammer creates accounts using stolen (or legitimate) credit cards, then after a few weeks they call the credit card company and charge it back. The rules credit card companies apply to chargebacks aren’t a good fit for digital goods, so the game publishers suffer fines from the card companies for exceeding chargeback rates.
The meteoric rise of popular social games like Farmville that cater to a growing population of mainstream players makes social gaming an increasingly popular entry point for cybercriminals to lie, cheat—and of course steal. Fraud and risk management should be a top priority for every gaming publisher regardless of size to protect their business, their customers and the overall reputation of the industry. Online game publishers that employ a winning anti-fraud defense can turn social gaming into a losing game for cybercriminals.
- Tom
P.S. For more proof that cybercriminals know to match their tactics to the target, check out this new article posted at Internet Retailer that describes how iReel.com sets the rules when it comes to stopping online fraud
