Are your users protected? How iGaming operators can help stop account takeovers.

To attract new customers, operators may offer incentives that take the form of coupons, promo codes, freebies, and seed money. Fraudsters are also attracted by these incentives and may set up hundreds or even thousands of accounts to get the promotional funds. Once they do, they use the money or promo and then abandon the account.

To detect multi-accounting, operators can use velocity checks and other device identification technologies. Velocity checks help fraud teams recognize when one device or IP address is setting up and accessing many accounts. With this knowledge, the suspect device can be blocked from opening further accounts, thus saving the operator from potential financial loss.

Communication between marketing and fraud teams is also important. When these teams coordinate, the launch of new promotions can be accompanied by enhanced security. What’s more, if bonus opportunities and fraud incidents are tracked, operators can weigh the value of new users against the risk of promo abuse.

To complement velocity checks, geo-tracking can also help combat multi accounting and account takeovers. Bets placed on mobile devices, traditional computers, and laptops can be tracked to a specific geographic range. For example, if an individual in another country attempts to log into an account, fraud management software can flag the activity. Then the attempt can undergo review to be stopped entirely, and the original account owner can be alerted that their login credentials may have been compromised.

Behavior analytics can also provide further insights into fraudulent activity. The technology can help decipher whether a human or bot is opening an account and can confirm whether the person logging in is the owner.

Furthermore, fraud management companies can access aggregate data from online banking, buying, and other internet activity, which is collected and hosted in large databases. With this information, they can assemble something like a virtual fingerprint against which to verify player behavior and activity. If a player’s location, device, or actions deviate significantly from a data-derived norm, an attempted transaction can be flagged.

One of the most powerful ways to protect accounts is to have players actively participate in the process. That’s where multi-factor authentication comes in.

You’ve probably heard of two-factor authentication. Multi-factor is similar. The only difference is that multi-factor authentication is a minimum of two steps, but can be more. Common ways for players to identify themselves include email or text verification codes, fingerprint authentication, or a phone call. 

Multi-factor authentication, however, does take longer and may appear as a barrier that slows down a player’s ability to play games. But when players understand an operator has high standards for safety, they’ll likely recognize a few seconds of waiting or steps of verification are a small price to pay for security. This approach, in which players are willing to behave in a way that supports fraud management systems, can contribute to the longevity and profitability of a platform. Trust promotes repeat purchases and loyalty.