Software payment fraud prevention and detection: What’s the difference?

With the number of fraud claims reaching 2.4 million in 2022, according to the latest data released by the Federal Trade Commission, ensuring that your software platform has the proper payment fraud prevention and detection measures in place before launching payments to your users is essential to protecting your organization and customers. However, before you can have the proper strategies in place, you’ll need to understand what payment fraud detection and payment fraud prevention are and how they differ.

Commonly these two terms are used interchangeably but they are two very distinct things, and one can’t exist without the other.

Throughout this blog, we’ll explain each: payment fraud prevention and payment fraud detection, provide real-world examples to bring these strategies to life, and explore how they’re different.

What is payment fraud detection?

Payment fraud detection is the process of identifying and preventing fraudulent transactions involving a combination of technology, analytics, and procedures specifically designed to spot unusual patterns or behaviors that may indicate fraud. The goal of fraud detection is to protect financial assets and payments data and maintain the integrity of the payment ecosystem. Payment fraud detection measures typically include the following:

• Transaction monitoring: Payment systems must continuously monitor transactions for signs of fraud, such as strange purchase locations, high-value transactions, or multiple transactions occurring within a short period of time.
• Data analytics: Regularly analyzing transaction data to spot patterns that deviate from what you consider normal is an essential tactic for identifying fraudulent activity.
• Verification procedures: When suspicious activity is detected having additional verification procedures in place, such as two-factor authentication or making direct contact with the consumer, is a key piece of proper fraud detection.
• Real-time processing: Fraud detection systems that operate in real-time help a software company quickly identify and respond to potential fraud to minimize financial loss.
• Regular optimizations: Like with most things, fraud detection systems must adapt, evolve, and be regularly optimized to stay effective. Fraud is constantly evolving, and fraudsters are finding new and sophisticated ways to capture payments data from unsuspecting organizations.

What is payment fraud prevention?

Payment fraud prevention are the strategies and measures put in place to protect against unauthorized transactions. It’s a proactive approach that focuses on stopping fraud before it takes place. Typical payment fraud prevention programs may include:

• Authentication: Implementing authentication measures such as multi-factor authentication (MFA) to confirm the identity of software users can help reduce the risk of unauthorized access from payments data stored on your platform.
• Encryption: Encryption can help protect data during transmission and storage.
• Fraud training: Taking the time to properly educate your staff and customer base about common fraud types and how to recognize and respond to potential threats is paramount to prevention.
• Fraud detection software: Software can help monitor transactions for suspicious activity and flag potential fraud for your review.
• Transaction limits: Encouraging your customers to set transaction amount limits or frequencies may help minimize the risk of a large-scale fraud.
• Customer verification: Verifying new and existing customers through various check points to ensure they are legitimate is an important measure, especially as it relates to merchant underwriting.
• Industry compliance: Following the mandatory industry standards like PCI DSS 4.0 will ensure that you are securely handling payments data and minimizing the risk of fraud.
• Regular audits: Checking for data vulnerabilities can ensure that all your security measures are up to date, effective, and efficient.

What’s the difference between payments fraud prevention and detection?

As you can see, payment fraud prevention and detection are two distinct (but crucial) components in combating fraud. Fraud prevention is a proactive strategy that focuses on trying to stop fraudulent activities before they take place. The measures put in place are centered around creating barriers and deterrents to stop fraud attempts.

On the other hand, fraud detection is more reactive in nature and aims to identify and respond to suspicious activities during or immediately after they take place. Both are essential to protecting payments data and maintaining the trust of your software users. Together, they provide robust protection against fraud that fortifies your platform, your customers’ business, and the payment ecosystem.

What software companies need to know about payment fraud prevention and detection

Protecting your customers from payment fraud is a big (and necessary) responsibility. Fortunately, this is not something you need to embark on alone. Partnering with a sophisticated Embedded Payments solution, with risk, security, and compliance at the heart, can be a gamechanger for software platforms like yours. A strategic payments partner with a team of experts available to guide you through the ins and outs of Embedded Payments and proper payments fraud prevention and detection is a key consideration for any software company that is serious about growing their business with Embedded Payments.

Learn more about the security features Payrix and Worldpay for Platforms has in place, including SaferPayments and Omnitoken, to help software companies secure payments with payments technology that was designed to limit risk, prevent fraud, and ensure compliance holistically.