No matter the industry, if money moves online, you can be sure that fraud will follow. And in gaming, where purchases are fast, frequent, and tightly woven into live experiences, the risk only intensifies. To put it into perspective, a study by ACI Worldwide and Newzoo reported that 1 in 5 players experience fraud while paying online. And yes, while these incidents impact players directly, they can also wreak havoc on creator-run economies, potentially turning a thriving platform into an unplayable experience. In the end, it’s the developers and sellers who ultimately take the biggest hit.
An increase in chargebacks, rising dispute ratios, and a damaged reputation among the core player base are just a few of the consequences that come with mismanaging fraud. This is where having the right infrastructure makes all the difference. To effectively manage gaming payments, the industry must rely on solutions that not only makes payments seamless and hassle-free, but also actively safeguards transactions.
At Tebex, protection and reliability are built into our very foundation, as we understand that trust is a value that’s hard to earn and yet so easily broken. In this blog, we invite you to explore with us how we’re able to maintain that trust across a network of over 30,000 creators, keeping fraud in check and payments optimized.
The Silent Shield Behind Every Transaction
As mentioned, the pace and volume of in-game purchases make gaming platforms a frequent target for fraud and abuse. And where fraud becomes a day-to-day concern, tackling it becomes part of ours. That includes everything from managing chargebacks to bot-led carding attempts and repeat offenders showing up across different servers.
Keeping our clients protected from these threats isn’t about a single tool or a one-size-fits-all solution. At Tebex, we’ve learned throughout our 13 years in the business that every studio and creator is as unique as the gaming experiences they provide. To that end, we’ve developed a multi-layered system that adapts to different forms of fraud, so our partners can rest assured that their safety is as robust - or more so - than the threats facing them.
Network Intelligence
With an extensive network of over 30,000 talented creators, Tebex holds a unique advantage when it comes to fraud detection. Our vast scale grants us clear visibility into thousands of transactions across the wide range of platforms we support. Each transaction contributes to a collective understanding of evolving fraud patterns, strengthening our ability to anticipate and respond to threats across our entire ecosystem.
Machine Learning and Behavioral Analysis
As part of our commitment to continuous optimization, Tebex makes use of adaptive machine learning models trained to detect threats in real-time. These models go beyond static rules, analyzing user behavior at checkout and flagging subtle patterns that indicate risk.
Examples include copying and pasting into form fields (an indicator of potential bot behavior), mobile users inputting values while the device is upside down, and a range of other behavioral signals identified through the fraud detection tools integrated into the Tebex platform.
Instead of relying on rigid thresholds that often flag valid purchases, our systems continuously adapt and learn from platform-wide transaction data. This allows us to be flexible in addressing new fraud patterns while avoiding false positives, a serious concern in gaming payments where behaviors like high-frequency purchases or email addresses with special characters are many times legitimate, especially where players use their gamer tag for their email address.
Real-Time Rule-Based Responses
While machine learning helps in handling the everyday flow of transactions, sometimes fraud escalates quickly, through occurrences like coordinated carding attacks or targeted attempts on a specific title, requiring a targeted, instant-impact approach.
That’s why Tebex’s fraud protection team is always on standby, ready to tackle each situation as it arises. While each situation is unique, the team has previously taken actions such as temporarily blocking specific banks, requiring 3D Secure (3DS) on high-risk transactions, adding verification layers to filter out any type of suspicious behavior, and many more tactics.
Each attack requires highly targeted, and time-sensitive measures designed to neutralize threats without introducing unnecessary friction for both buyers and sellers.
End-to-End Protection
Fraud prevention doesn’t stop at detection. Tebex’s commitment goes beyond blocking against fraud threats and extends to defending our clients from chargeback disputes as well. As soon as a dispute is received, our automated systems analyse the transaction, player behaviour and, along with our fraud team, decide on the best way to defend the chargeback. These targeted defense packets are generated and submitted to the banks automatically in many cases, helping to maintain a good reputation with the banks who know we’re active and engaged in the chargeback process.
Once submitted, the dispute enters a review process, which slightly varies based on the card scheme. Regardless, considering that our evidence is drawn directly from user behavior and platform-level data, it gives our defense a clear, factual foundation that aligns with what banks and issuers look for.
The results? A 65% win rate, one of the highest in the industry.
Tebex is a leading gaming payments solution enabling game developers and creators worldwide to keep more of their revenue while removing the billing and taxes operations headache for every transaction. Want to learn more about how Tebex keeps creators protected so they can focus on creating amazing gaming experiences? Contact us here.