TransUnion company iovation, has revealed in its 2020 iGaming Report that bonus abuse was the number one reported fraud by its Gaming customers for the third year in a row, rising 72% from 2018 to 2019
The report, which is now in its fourth year, details more than four billion global online gambling transactions iovation screened for fraud indicators over the past 15 years.
Greg Pierson, TransUnion’s senior vice president of business planning and development commented: “Deposit bonuses can be a valuable tool for attracting and retaining players. Unfortunately, a few bad apples can abuse otherwise effective programs to the point of eliminating all their value.
“Providing a secure and friction-right mobile experience to onboard new players has never been more important for competing effectively in the iGaming market with new countries and states seemingly legalising online gambling every week.”
The firm also outlined a surge to in reports of player self-exclusions, with more than 363,000 reports in 2019, a 63% increase compared to 2018.
In many instances a self-excluded gambler tries to set up a new account, many times with the information of another family member, when they have a change of heart. Or fraudsters set up a new account using a stolen credit card, deposit funds using that card and then self-exclude before the chargeback – a forced transaction reversal initiated by the cardholder’s bank.
Angie White, iovation product marketing manager commented on the findings: “When looking at devices and accounts associated with self-exclusion reports in 2019, we saw eight times (three million) the number of devices and three times (1.2 million) the number of accounts in comparison to reports of self-exclusion.
“This paints a clear picture that those who self-exclude are not always walking away. Having multiple devices and accounts linked to self-exclusion reports could point to a self-excluded player trying to use another device to set up a new account or something more problematic like a fraud ring.”
