Fraud & Identity Featured Article

New Solutions Help Marketers Combat Fraud

By Alicia Young Web Editor

Mobile fraud seems to be running rampant these days, and the seriousness of the situation if affecting several different groups. Every time a fraudster commits a crime that impacts mobile users—whether through mobile number porting, smishing, A2P messaging or SIM box fraud—the same groups face the consequences. We often think of the individual whose information is stolen as being the victim, but mobile operators and banks also face severe ramifications. The most forgotten group of this bunch is marketers, whose A2P channels are often taken advantage of, and who commit fraudulent activity by unknowingly falling out of compliance with TCPA guidelines.

Legally, it doesn’t matter how or why the fraudulent activity occurs. If a fraudster hacks into a company’s texting channels and starts sending spam, the company is still the one held accountable. If a marketer is working off of an old database and starts unknowingly sending unwanted outreach to customers, thus falling out of compliance with TCPA guidelines, the company is the one held accountable. The details don’t matter—at the end of the day, the law has been broken by the marketers involved.

This sad reality makes it clear that marketers are victims here as well. Even someone with the best intentions can fall victim to fraud, compromising the company in the process. That’s why we’re seeing more and more solutions coming out to help marketers identify and combat fraudulent activity. Affle, for example, is a Singapore HQ mobile audience intelligence and analytics platforms company that just launched its Fraud Analytics As a Service Platform, ‘mTraction FaaS,’ to help marketers fight mobile ad fraud.

According to recent reports, about 16.4 billion is lost globally due to ad fraud every year. Affle’s mTraction FaaS is meant to lessen that number by helping marketers detect fraud while it’s actually happening, not after the fact. Catching fraudulent activity before it has the chance to wreak havoc will undoubtedly help save marketing dollars. Without fraud in the picture, those funds can be used for their actual purpose: marketing.

Takayuki Hoshuyama, President & CEO of D2C Japan, discussed the importance of anti-fraud solutions for marketers by saying, “Ad fraud is one of the ongoing big issues, which is getting the attention of both advertisers and agencies now. In Japan alone, advertising budget running into millions is wasted due to advertising fraud. mTraction FaaS, a robust platform developed by Affle, is aiming to help the advertisers to not only detect but also protect from fraud sources, hence helping them attain positive ROI from their marketing budgets. The advertising ecosystem needs to come together and work with such technological platforms to solve this problem.”

Affle isn’t the only company that’s recognized this need. iconectiv (News - Alert) has also launched its own solution to help marketers combat fraud. iconectiv’s Right Party Verification for Messaging is meant to help marketers keep their data up to date, so that marketers can comply with TCPA standards and avoid hefty fines. Although slightly different, both companies’ solutions are focused on preventing fraud so that marketers can focus on doing their jobs rather than worrying about whether or not they’re unknowingly participating in fraud.