The most common forms of bonuses are:
- Welcome Bonus: Offered to new customers on signing up or making their first deposit
- No Deposit Bonus: A bonus given to new players just for registering, without requiring a deposit.
- Free Spins: These are specifically for slot games in online casinos, giving players a certain number of spins without having to wager their own money. They are often part of a welcome package or ongoing promotions.
- Reload Bonus: Aimed at existing players, this bonus provides additional funds when they make subsequent deposits after the initial one. The goal is to incentivize them to continue playing on the platform.
- Cashback Bonus: Offers players a percentage of their losses back over a certain period, providing a safety net and encouraging continued play.
- Loyalty/VIP Programs: Rewards regular players with points for their wagers, which can be exchanged for bonuses, free spins, or other perks. VIP programs often have tiers, with higher rewards for higher levels of play.
- Refer-a-Friend Bonus/Referral abuse: Incentivizes players to bring new users to the platform by offering a bonus to both the referrer and the referred friend when the friend signs up and makes a deposit.
- Match Bonus: Similar to a welcome bonus, but can be offered for various deposits, where the casino matches a percentage of the player’s deposit amount.
- Seasonal/Promotional Bonuses: Special bonuses tied to specific events, holidays, or seasons, offering unique incentives to engage players during those times.
While effective, these incentives also attract fraudsters looking to exploit them for personal gain, making iGaming platforms prime targets for bonus abuse attacks. Incentive abuse losses in the betting industry reached a staggering USD 1.2 billion between 2022 and 2023.
Understanding bonus abuse fraud in iGaming
Fraudsters often create multiple accounts using fake identities or stolen personal information to claim bonuses intended for first-time users multiple times. They may also use technologies like VPNs, Tor browsers, or even malicious tools like app cloners, emulators, or GPS spoofers to create virtual devices and mask their identities and location.
They employ different methods to conduct bonus abuse fraud, including:
- Bonus Hunting: leverage bonuses and promotions to secure profits by taking advantage of favorable terms and conditions, such as minimal wagering requirements or generous bonuses compared to the deposit amount.
- Cross betting: the fraudsters place bets on opposite outcomes of the same event using different accounts. For example, in a football match, one account might bet on Team A to win, while another account bets on Team B to win. Alternatively, they could use different platforms to place these bets if the terms and conditions of the bonuses restrict using the same platform.
- Collusion: Players work together to manipulate games and maximize bonus benefits, like sharing information in poker to increase their chances of winning and maximize the benefits obtained from bonuses.
The combination of technologies and tools used to mask identities, along with the different strategies for executing bonus abuse attacks, makes detecting and preventing this type of fraud a significant challenge for iGaming platforms.
How to reduce bonus abuse?
Bonus abuse fraud not only hurts operators financially but also creates an unfair environment for legitimate players, damaging a platform’s reputation. To combat such fraudulent activities, iGaming platforms must take a proactive approach to fraud prevention. What does this mean? Every instance of fraud begins with a device, whether it's used to create fake accounts or employ malicious tools to hide identity and location. The most effective way to fight fraud is to eliminate it at its root: by identifying the device used to carry out the attacks.
To achieve this, it is crucial to implement real-time fraud detection and prevention technology to identify suspicious activity, such as unusual betting patterns or multiple accounts linked to the same user. This approach blend various strategies, including:
Device Fingerprinting: Key to fraud detection! It identifies and tracks individual player devices with advanced technology. This helps detect suspicious patterns like multiple accounts linked to the same device.
Real-Time Fraud Detection: Utilize automated systems that analyze user behavior and flag irregularities like unusual betting patterns.
AI and Machine Learning: Leverage AI-powered solutions to analyze vast amounts of data (device information, network data, user behavior) to detect known and emerging fraud tactics.
How SHIELD can help you beat bonus abuse
SHIELD’s Device-First Risk AI platform serves as the first line of defense for businesses worldwide, including iGaming and real-money gaming platforms such as ATLAS:Earth and Mobile Premier League.
Powered by cutting-edge device fingerprinting and the latest in AI & machine learning algorithms, our solution identifies the root of fraud - the physical devices behind attacks - with accurate device identification (SHIELD Device ID) and real-time actionable risk intelligence.
iGaming platforms can leverage our Device ID, the global standard for device identification, to confidently identify the devices associated with fake accounts and fraudulent activities - even when the fraudsters try to change device parameters or perform factory resets. This unique device identifier enables operators to accurately distinguish every device, and prevent multi accounting, collusion and other methods used to conduct bonus abuse.
Operators can also use our SHIELD Risk Intelligence to continuously profile each device session, returning real-time risk signals to provide a comprehensive picture of user activity in the ecosystem. This involves detecting tools and techniques associated with fraud such as VPN/proxy, GPS spoofers and emulators, identifying the exact moment users engaged in fraudulent activities.
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