Now merchants can strike back at fraudsters

A new patent awarded to nSure.ai empowers merchants to strike back against fraudsters attempting to buy digital goods with a stolen payment mechanism.

nSure.ai, a Tel Aviv-based global leader in fraud prevention for online merchants selling high-risk digital products and services, has been awarded a patent by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office titled Systems and Methods for Detection of Online Payment Mechanism Fraud.

The system uses artificial intelligence to identify with extremely high certainty that the transaction is fraudulent. But then, rather than declining the transaction, the merchant approves the transaction and delivers a zero-balance gift card.

“Fraudsters who try to sell a worthless gift card on the dark web will see their reputation tarnished in their world, and will have difficulty continuing to operate under the same username,” says Alex Zeltcer, CEO of nSure.ai. “These transactions will become a waste of their time and money. The fraudsters will ultimately leave those digital merchants alone and move on to others to conduct their business.”

This patent follows another received by nSure.ai in May 2020, titled Systems and Methods for Detecting Fraudulent Use of a Serial Code for Accessing an Associated Value Stored on a Network. That patent prevents fraudsters from conducting brute-force balance checks to find account numbers with a balance. When the system identifies that this attack is underway, it displays false balance values, so the fraudster is unable to know which cards actually have a balance and which are fakes.

nSure.ai says it is committed to disrupting the fraud prevention space for digital goods and enabling seamless and secure d-commerce and payments across digital platforms. It uses artificial intelligence to empower digital merchants to approve up to 95% of their transactions – and contractually guarantees it.

The company told Gadget: “In scalable fraud, the scenario often involves a fraudster buying gift cards on a large scale using stolen payment methods. Their aim is to quickly sell these digital (in this case, fraudulent) goods to make a profit.

“The real twist comes when these fraudulently obtained gift cards, which are effectively ‘zero-balance’ cards due to our patented system, are sold on the secondary market. The unsuspecting buyers, expecting a valid gift card, will find that these cards are declined when they attempt to use them.

“This results in a backlash against the original fraudster – they’ll face demands for refunds from disgruntled buyers, and worse, they’ll experience a loss of trust and credibility in their illicit circles. Essentially, it taints their reputation and disrupts their fraudulent activities, making it harder for them to continue their operations under the same guise. This method, therefore, is not just a preventative measure, but also a counteractive strategy that actively harms the fraudster’s standing and operation.”