Online gaming fraud refers to various scams targeting the game industry and exploiting personal details for monetary gain. When a user’s ID or confidential information, such as credit card number and SSN, is compromised, fraudsters could profit from these details and cause damage to the victim.
Moreover, scammers have continuously been targeting this community, but online gaming fraud significantly increased during the COVID-19 pandemic, and the number of gamers significantly increased due to lockdowns. The considerable increase in gamers during this time has attracted more fraudsters to the industry, causing gaming frauds to increase to a larger group of users.
Online gamers are among the most common scamming targets as most games involve in-app purchases, requiring users to enter financial details, like their credit card numbers. Additionally, some fraudsters employ social-engineering methods to extort confidential details from the victims.
Most Common Fraud in Gaming Industry:
VR, aka virtual reality, is capturing the gaming world at a breakneck speed. Moreover, it has a crucial role in new games and digital onboarding. Furthermore, virtual reality can be very helpful in generating more income and attracting new gamers. Yet, players need to enter financial data while making in-game purchases.
Gaming frauds increase significantly as digital platforms accept payments in no time. Thus, it draws many fraudsters. So, the gaming community should employ trustworthy verification systems to reduce fraud in online gaming as well as data loss.
Manipulation of Legitimate Gamers:
Legitimate gamers are forced to give personal details as hackers cause a number of hurdles using additional identities. Similarly, scammers target naive players through phoney sites to unlock premium tiers to fetch their payment information. Thus, it leads to blackmailing.
So, the online gaming community must include accurate player id verification to prevent scams and deter player abuse.
Credit Card Fraud:
This term is also known as True Fraud as it is a quick and one of the common ways of scamming someone without even letting them know. Moreover, fraudsters cheat players to get their credit card numbers and use them to increase their account prices. This technique also involves tier unlocking and in-game credits.
These accounts sometimes cost more than thousands of dollars and can be bought from multiple trading sites. Furthermore, stolen credit card information is also available on the dark web. Illegal trading leads to chargeback and harms anyone apart from scammers.
Account Takeover Fraud:
Every platform is suffering from account takeovers nowadays. Gamers, who have spent so many dollars to reach a higher tier, are mostly the victims of it. Countess automated software in the market helps fraudsters find user IDs and passwords. This term is also referred to as Credential Stuffing.
The buyers of these upper-tier IDs are generally those players looking for a shortcut to upgrade their accounts.
High Returns:
High returns are more damaging for the industry’s small players than the popular ones. These players make little bets and don’t worry about making in-game payments. Several digital marketplaces offer refunds to people who return a product. Moreover, in online gambling scams, scammers manipulate naive gamers’ financial details and claim fake rebates.
The power of making in-game transactions boosts earnings and brings more users or players. However, it also increases the possibility of gaming frauds. Thus, firms should opt for online gaming verification with KYC and anti-money laundering to deliver individuality before players’ digital onboarding.
Fake Chargebacks
Fake chargebacks are those scams in which hackers act as authentic financial surveillance and contact real players. This scam is also famous as “friendly fraud,” as users are compelled to give credit card information. Additionally, it lets fraudsters get faux claims for in-game buys.
Due to these increasing gaming frauds, strict transaction monitoring and permission checks are becoming a must for regulatory agencies. Including a strong gaming verification digital system is a must to diminish false chargeback claims.
Prevention of Gaming Fraud
It is a necessary strategy for firms to strengthen their market credibility. Moreover, improved data security can be provided using AI and ML-powered systems.
Here are a few steps helping to prevent online gaming fraud:
- Understand Fraudsters’ Behaviour
- The Employment of 2FA
- Monitor Suspicious Login
- Use Online Gaming Verification with KYC
In The End
Online gaming frauds are taking place every single minute and companies are trying to incorporate new techniques for identifying genuine players. Artificial intelligence-based authentication systems have a beneficial role in this mind-boggling gaming world to tighten safety and privacy strategies. The utilisation of online and instant digital document verification is a must for online gaming frauds to rescue the esports industry from doubtful activities.