It's 'Game Over' for Online and Mobile Gaming Fraud

It’s ‘Game Over’ for Online and Mobile Gaming Fraud Gaming is a multi-billion dollar industry, making it an attractive target for fraud. Prevent revenue loss and protect your players with digital fraud detection and prevention solutions.

It’s ‘Game Over’ for Online and Mobile Gaming Fraud

Contents

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Benefits of fraud prevention for online and mobile gaming

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Drop-in Gaming and Kount secure the online gaming experience

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Survey: 21% of gamers have been hacked in the last year

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How Kount’s online and mobile gaming fraud solution works

How Jagex increased subscribers, 10 net credit card revenue 1% annually Fraud solution use cases level up 12 game security More fraud-fighting resources for 16 game developers

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© 2022 Kount, an Equifax Company. All rights reserved.

Benefits of fraud prevention for online and mobile gaming

Prevent account takeover attacks

Minimize promo abuse

Reduce friction for good players

Block or challenge abnormal behavior from fraudsters attempting to hack into player accounts.

Customize policies around email use, trusted devices, and promo codes to deter fraudsters from taking advantage of rewards.

Provide frictionless game-buying experiences for known players from login to checkout, regardless of channel.

Stop new account fraud

Reduce chargebacks

Resolve friendly fraud disputes

Prevent fake accounts or bots from creating unfair gameplay, abusing promo offerings, and scamming other players.

Protect against chargebacks from money laundering schemes, payments fraud, and in-game artifact trading scams.

Help players recognize purchases and quickly refund unintentional purchases to avoid chargebacks.

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It’s ‘Game Over’ for Online and Mobile Gaming Fraud

Drop-in Gaming secures the online gaming experience

“

We’re building a platform that can be utilized in multiple ways. ... People have to feel secure. … Not only did [Kount] have the services and everything we need to build that secure platform, but the biggest thing is the people. They were going to be there to make sure we’re doing it the right way.”

— Jason Atwood, CEO, Drop-In Gaming

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© 2022 Kount, an Equifax Company. All rights reserved.

Ready to protect the gaming experience?

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It’s ‘Game Over’ for Online and Mobile Gaming Fraud

Survey:

21% of gamers have been hacked in the last year

Once a fraudster has access to a player’s account, they can sell the entire account, spread spam and links to phishing sites to other gamers, steal credit card information, withdraw funds, and change account information.

In 2022, Kount surveyed 1,000 consumers who have purchased video games in the last year to find out how often they experience unusual account activity and what they think gaming companies can do about it.

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© 2022 Kount, an Equifax Company. All rights reserved.

Top reasons gamers would stop playing a game indefinitely If the game became boring

15.53%

If their account was hacked or stolen more than once

15.39%

If the game required too many in-game or in-app purchases to progress

14.23%

If they experienced too much unfair gameplay

14.09%

If they experienced too many in-game or in-app ads If they were scammed by another player in the game If the game was too difficult If they couldn’t sign in with their password

13.14%

10.45% 8.97% 8.10% Explore the infographic 7

It’s ‘Game Over’ for Online and Mobile Gaming Fraud

How Kount’s online and mobile gaming fraud so Identify solutions build comprehensive player personas Kount’s Identify solutions provide you with the insights to interact safely with players on your gaming platforms. These solutions combine physical and digital identifier data to construct an accurate persona of web and mobile app users. As a result, you can protect your business and give players a seamless gaming experience.

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© 2022 Kount, an Equifax Company. All rights reserved.

olution works Assess solutions mitigate chargeback risks Kount’s Assess solutions use advanced AI and machine learning to verify that a site or mobile app visitor is a legitimate player. These solutions also integrate tools from major card brands to manage post-authorization disputes and chargebacks from friendly fraud.

Find the right fraud solution for your company 9

It’s ‘Game Over’ for Online and Mobile Gaming Fraud

Case study

How Jagex increased subscribers, net credit card revenue 1% annually For over two decades, Jagex has taken a progressive, community-first approach to game development. The company has become a leading online developer with a global reputation for creating hugely popular free-to-play games. But, in 2009, Jagex started using an internally developed fraud solution.

Unfortunately, the company was facing fast-changing fraud tactics, high rejection rates, and increasing competition for in-house development resources. So Dave Parrott, fraud and risk director at Jagex, sought a solution that would allow him to respond to fraud rapidly while reducing decline rates.

Leveraging Kount’s Omniscore, an actionable transaction safety rating, Jagex could quickly and easily write policies that cut their rejection rate by 50% with no increase in fraudulent charges. Even with the lower rejection rate, Jagex still held its chargeback rate at around 0.2%. Altogether, the company gained almost 1% more net credit card revenue each year. Plus, after implementing Kount, their conversion rate on longer-term membership subscriptions increased from 3% to 4%.

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© 2022 Kount, an Equifax Company. All rights reserved.

“

Kount offered us something other companies couldn’t: the ability to write our own custom rules that apply to our unique situation,” Dave explained.

“I didn’t have to buy someone else’s pre-packaged sets. Further, the Kount system is easy to integrate and set up, so I could use what I already had in place quickly and intelligently.”

— Dave Parrott, Fraud and Risk Director, Jagex

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Kount + Equifax Digital Customer Journey

Use cases

Fraud solution use cases level up game security Stop sneaker bots and resellers in their tracks Problem

Solution

Outcome

Fraudsters use sneaker (or inventory) bots to target limitededition product releases, buy up stock from legitimate customers, and resell items for a profit.

• Detect high-velocity activity at add-to-cart or payment events.

Save your brand image and maintain customer loyalty.

Legitimate customers can have a better chance at obtaining limited-edition products without having to pay above MSRP to a third-party seller.

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of businesses surveyed said they lost at least $100,000 to a single bot attack.

Source: “Bot Landscape and Impact Report,” Kount, 2020

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• Identify risk attributes associated with IP traffic.

• Assess behavioral attributes that don’t align with typical traffic patterns.

y Prevent click fraud from wasting advertising spend Problem

Solution

Outcome

Gaming companies see their PPC advertising costs artificially inflated due to fraudulent clicks.

• Identify high-risk internet organizations, proxies, hosting solutions, and scripted bot traffic patterns.

Reduce advertising costs, and spend less time on fraudulent customers.

• Customize risk profiles to segment markets, verticals, websites, and user types to block appropriate traffic pre-redirect.

• Customize API response payloads to leverage your own data solutions and alerting systems.

Advertising fraud cost businesses worldwide

• Reporting quickly identifies trends so that you can adjust risk profiles in real time, without IT intervention.

Source: “Economic losses due to ad fraud 2020, by country,” Statista, 2022

$35 billion in 2020.

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It’s ‘Game Over’ for Online and Mobile Gaming Fraud

Use cases

Detect account takeover attacks before they affect players Problem

Solution

Outcome

Fraudsters hack into gamers’ accounts for the purpose of selling the account, spreading spam and links to phishing sites and other gamers, stealing credit card information, withdrawing funds, and changing account information.

• Use device intelligence to manage trusted devices.

Detect malicious or suspicious login activity, and stop attacks that can cost significant time, resources, and revenue.

• Passive authentication verifies a user’s digital identity without causing friction.

• Launch multi-factor authentication via dynamic hyperlink to challenge suspicious account activity.

Source: “Account Takeover: Game Over,” Kount, 2022

15%

of gamers say they’d quit playing a game if they were hacked more than once.

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© 2022 Kount, an Equifax Company. All rights reserved.

Deflect friendly fraud disputes before they become chargebacks Problem

Solution

Outcome

Customers dispute gaming purchases anytime they don’t recognize a purchase. Fraudsters dispute purchases to get goods for free.

• Access a single dashboard to manage disputes and chargebacks from Visa and Mastercard purchases.

Save the sale, prevent inventory loss, maintain your brand’s reputation, and improve business policies.

• Inquiries tell you in real time when customers initiate disputes.

• Automatically relay transaction details to banks and customers.

• Chargeback alerts give you up to 72 hours to act on an incoming chargeback.

56%

of customers who disputed a gaming purchase in the last year cite instances of friendly fraud.

• Use additional chargeback data to improve business operations and future fraud policies.

Source: “Account Takeover: Game Over,” Kount, 2022

Let us help you find the best solution for your fraud problems 15

It’s ‘Game Over’ for Online and Mobile Gaming Fraud

Blog posts

More fraud-fighting resources for game develop 5 online gaming fraud s chemes that lose revenue, discourage players Whether they’re infiltrating Twitch streams or hacking into Fortnite accounts, fraudsters use gaming as a vehicle for payments fraud, account takeover attacks, card testing, and a host of other nefarious acts. Meanwhile, even legitimate gamers can commit intentional or accidental friendly fraud.

Because the success of a game relies on good gaming experiences, developers are in a tricky position when it comes to fighting fraud. They have to maintain customer loyalty, provide a good gaming experience, and weed out bad actors while turning a profit.

Knowing the types of fraud most threatening to online games can help better prepare game companies to fight the fraud before it happens.

And before it ruins the gaming experience for loyal customers.

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© 2022 Kount, an Equifax Company. All rights reserved.

pers Top 4 fraud schemes affecting mobile gaming — and how to stop them Mobile games have made up 30% of game purchases in 2022. Unfortunately, online gaming fraud is a huge risk to the gaming industry. And when it comes to mobile games, fraudsters have an easy advantage. Check out the Kount blog to explore how fraudsters: • Use fake apps and malware to steal user information • Create new accounts to make fraudulent in-app purchases • Use spoof sites to hack into game accounts • Launch click fraud schemes that waste marketing spend

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It’s ‘Game Over’ for Online and Mobile Gaming Fraud

Kount protects the gaming experience, reduces chargebacks, and eliminates friction. www.kount.com sales@kount.com +1.866.909.8843

About Kount, an Equifax Company Kount, an Equifax Company, provides the world’s most advanced identity trust, digital enablement, and consumer insights platform. It delivers real-time fraud prevention and account protection, and it allows more than 15,000 leading brands and payment providers to personalize customer experiences. Linked by our award-winning AI, Kount’s Identity Trust Global Network™ analyzes signals from 32 billion annual interactions to personalize user experiences across the spectrum of trust — from reducing friction to blocking fraud. Quick and accurate identity trust decisions deliver safe payment, account creation, and login events while reducing digital fraud, chargebacks, false positives, and manual reviews. www.kount.com/industries/online-gaming/

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© 2022 Kount, an Equifax Company. All rights reserved.