Today’s Top Fraud Fighting Solutions Are Not Created Equal: Kount vs. Sift Science

The Paypers recently published its 6th annual “Web Fraud Prevention & Online Authentication Market Guide” for 2017-2018. The report analyzes the latest fraud prevention and authentication trends, as well as identifies the companies that are making an impact. Focused on fraud and risk management, Kount extracted the shared information for each competitor and compiled a side by side feature comparison, including: Technology Platform Methodology Intelligence Digital Identity Verification Online Authentication Other Over the course of several weeks, Kount will be illustrating each vendor in comparison to Kount’s fraud solution.  While each company has specific strengths and weaknesses, the comparison charts illustrate where The Paypers indicates companies are lacking from a feature perspective. First under the microscope is Sift Science. Sift Science is a provider of cloud-based fraud solutions that leverage machine learning. According to the guide, Sift Science falls short of features in the Intelligence and Digital Identity Verification categories. Specifically, under the Intelligence category, The Paypers highlights that Sift Science does not provide its customers access to Abuse List, Monitoring, Address Verification, Credit Bureau, Information Sharing Network, Recovery and Guaranteed Fraud Prevention. The Paypers report also notes under the Digital Identify Verification Category Sift Science was not able to offer one or more of the recommended identified service features. Features aside, the fundamental difference between Kount and Sift Science lies in the methodology. While both companies rely on machine learning, Kount offers clients access to a rules-based architecture complimenting its two types of patented machine learning, supervised and unsupervised. The use of rules allows for domain and human expertise to be integrated into the machine learning feature set. The introduction of domain expertise positively influences the accuracy of decisions when determining the legitimacy of transactions and a merchants ability to reduce fraud with confidence that they are not declining valid orders. Kount tries to find every opportunity to accept transactions, as long as the data verifies they are good, and helps reduce false positives or customer insults. One area not outlined in the report that we feel is another crucial aspect of proper fraud management is that of reporting. Kount business intelligence tools allow merchants to review every aspect of the system to determine its effectiveness and efficiency and provides valuable data for case management. Kount’s Datamart is far more than a simple report on accepted vs. declined vs. reviewed transactions. The Datamart can set up workflow dashboards, daily, weekly, monthly reports for management, and offers deep insights into sales, marketing, and operations. As published in The Payper's Web Fraud Prevention and Online Authentication Market Guide. Want to know more? Click here for a free 15 minute overview of the Kount system.