Stopping fraud in its tracks

By Kamila Navarro

For many of us—especially those who enjoy online shopping—the acronym OTP is likely an all-too familiar term. Meaning ‘one-time password,’ OTPs ensure the authenticity of our online transactions through a simple text or email. Unsurprisingly, with the rise of digital transactions as a result of COVID-19, OTPs have become a prime target for fraudsters. In 2019, for instance, cases of OTP fraud grew 33 times compared to 2018—resulting in a loss of a whopping S$15.3 million.  

As digital modes of payment are more necessary than ever, keeping the transactions of customers and merchants secure is a key priority. Enter Jewel Paymentech, a financial risk technology company based in Singapore. With a mission to develop intelligent risk solutions, Jewel Paymentech empowers players in the banking and electronic payments (e-payments) industry to keep safe from deceptive scams.

Enhancing the e-commerce experience

Having previously worked in major financial services companies like Visa, Jewel Paymentech CEO Mr Sean Lam and his co-founders have seen it all—from rogue merchants engaging in illegal sales activities to fraudulent online transactions made with stolen credentials. “The banks were generally approaching the problem in a manual and reactive fashion, which was not effective amidst the growth of e-commerce and online transactions,” he observed.

Ultimately, however, it’s not just banks that are affected by these duplicitous events. Consumers are often unwitting victims as well. 

Keeping this in mind, Mr Lam and his team then set out to develop smart automated risk management solutions for the various stakeholders in the e-payment ecosystem.

Jewel Paymentech provides what it calls end-to-end risk management. This means that their intelligent solutions cover all bases—from the beginning of a merchant-customer relationship down to every online transaction. Jewel Paymentech then monitors these transactions in real-time, allowing them to stop fraudsters in their tracks.

Defence goes digital

To help fend off malicious attacks, Jewel Paymentech offers three products for defence. The first, Capture®, is an electronic Know-Your-Customer module that streamlines the merchant due diligence process.

For instance, Capture performs real time risk assessment of merchants with verified data from various company registries and data sources, facilitating a digitalised onboarding assessment of business entity and its owners. This eliminates the cumbersome—and in this post-COVID world, potentially risky—face-to-face verification process, speeding up onboarding. At the same time, Capture can also alert clients of any potential fraudulent merchant application even at an early stage.

The second option, called One Sentry®, lives up to its name by actively monitoring merchants for early indicators of fraudulent or other kinds of risky behaviour. These include activities like the sale of illicit goods or even deceptive market practices. Using natural language processing, One Sentry also identifies negative customer sentiment towards merchants—another indicator of risky behaviour. For online marketplaces, there is One Sentry® Marketplace, which monitors product listings as well as buyer and seller behaviours in real-time.

Finally, Jewel Paymentech’s Fraud Wall® harnesses the power of artificial intelligence (AI) to analyse transactions in real-time and identify patterns suggestive of potential fraudulent transactions committed by the consumer or a non bona fide merchant laundering payments. In the process, the AI engine takes into account hundreds of data points, including payment card details, cardholder information, device information, geolocation and more.

Making partnerships possible

With Jewel Paymentech’s expertise in managing e-payment risk, they’ve grabbed the attention of several banks and financial institutions in Southeast Asia. “Currently, we serve three local banks in Singapore,” shared Mr Lam. “We also successfully collaborated with a leading regional merchant acquirer and powered them to be the fastest in the market.” 

Their latest partnership, however, is with Southeast Asia’s first unicorn: ride-hailing behemoth Grab. Beyond its signature transportation services, Grab has since grown into a veritable super app, with options for food and item delivery, insurance and even investment. “It’s a natural next step for us to collaborate with a partner that prioritises the safety and security of customers,” said Mr Lam.

Through the partnership, Jewel Paymentech and Grab will offer a combined suite of fraud solutions to digital banks. The suite includes AI-powered real-time fraud prevention across multiple channels, ecosystem monitoring, risk-based authentication and the capability to stop compromised transactions in real-time.

Jewel Paymentech’s streak of successful partnerships can in part be attributed to its status as a company accredited by the Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA). 

Since being accredited, Jewel Paymentech has gone on to partner a government statutory board under Singapore’s Ministry of Trade and Industry.

Moving forward, the company now has its eyes set on becoming a market leader in financial risk technology. With the continuing rise of digital transactions, there’s no doubt that Jewel Paymentech will achieve that goal soon enough.