Kount: protecting partners and customers from fraud

Brad Wiskirchen, Kount’s CEO, investigates the pandemic’s effect on payments, e-commerce and fraud prevention, and the importance of companies to address account protection by the beginning of 2021. “As new digital interactions between our customers and partners and its end consumers develop, establishing trust in identity will be essential to prevent and respond to new threats, “says Wiskirchen in” A look to the future: What executives want for America and the world in 2021. “

First of all, my wish for 2021 is good health and recovery for people – doctors, nurses, health professionals, rescuers, small business owners, teachers, students, citizens and many others – affected mainly by the coronavirus pandemic. When I think about how the events of 2020 affected payments, e-commerce and fraud prevention, I think about how quickly things have changed. Some sectors have seen dramatic changes in transaction volumes, in any direction, overnight. Others adopted e-commerce models for the first time and were caught off guard by the deluge of risks and fraud that accompanied them.

Any company involved in e-commerce, especially in 2020, has experienced the pressures and impact of fraud throughout the customer’s journey. As a result, consumers and business owners have paid more attention than ever to digital interactions. Undoubtedly, the coronavirus accelerated the adoption of digital interactions in three to five years, depending on which experts you listen to.

So, with my desire for health and recovery comes the desire for a fraud-free digital transformation. In the spring of 2021, I predict that consumers will begin to engage again with companies in sectors that operate mainly in the digital space that have been heavily affected by the coronavirus: travel, entertainment, tickets and events. This activity will grow as people become more confident in their ability to resume life as they knew it, due to the availability of vaccines against the coronavirus. With the emergence of the post-coronavirus era, the general economy can recover quickly, just as the digital economy grew unexpectedly and quickly in 2020. There will be favorable winds for historically strong players in the verticals that have been most affected. And there will be a stronger digital economy for traditional companies.

However, it is important to recognize that there may be an obstacle to the economy of restaurants and those engaged in face-to-face business. We are likely to step out of the fog of COVID to find that many of the businesses we used to do before COVID disappeared. For businesses that remain, developing and maintaining digital strategies will be a competitive advantage. E-commerce companies will need to think about the entire customer journey and how to establish trust in identity at any time, even more than in previous years. In particular, customer accounts will be vulnerable, as companies face a large number of account appropriation attacks.

Any company involved in digital commerce or digital interactions with its customers would be remiss if it did not address account protection by the beginning of 2021. At Kount, the center of our 2021 preparations is our mission to do whatever is necessary to protect our partners and customers against digital fraud. Part of this is helping our partners and customers understand that it is time to change the roadmap from fraud prevention to establishing identity trust with actionable insights and advanced data. As new digital interactions between our customers and partners and their end consumers develop, establishing identity trust will be essential to prevent and respond to new threats. We will work with our partners, customers and the industry to elevate fraud prevention throughout the customer journey, so that companies can stay ahead of evolving trends in e-commerce.