Money20/20: Monica Eaton, Chargebacks911

Monica Eaton, founder and chief executive officer of Chargebacks911, discusses chargebacks, the importance of data to combat fraud and networking at Money20/20

At Money20/20 Europe, FinTech Intel caught up with Monica Eaton, founder and chief executive officer of Chargebacks911, to discuss chargebacks, the importance of data to combat fraud and networking at the event.

Can you tell me a bit about Chargebacks911 and the solutions that it offers?

We are the world’s first chargeback remediation and dispute management platform dedicated to supporting retailers and financial institutions, to manage the growth of post-transaction fraud.

As a technology platform provider, we provide SaaS solutions and services that manage the end-to-end dispute process.

We support more than 2.5 million merchants worldwide through our platform, and also serve the world’s largest financial institutions, offering modular solutions built for scale and scope.

What can you offer that your competition can’t?

Chargebacks911 has vast experience and knowledge of chargebacks and disputes, based on over a decade of focused domain expertise in working with many of the world’s largest organisations.

We also support the largest number of integrations, and offer adaptive technologies, enabling our clients to dramatically reduce the cost and time associated with integrating. 

One example of post-transaction fraud that has grown substantially since the COVID-19 pandemic, and still remains largely undetected, is friendly fraud (illegitimate chargeback claims).

In fact, we’ve found in our recent Chargeback Field Report that nearly three quarters of merchants surveyed have seen approximately a 20% increase in illegitimate chargebacks from Q4 2022 to Q1 2023.

With our knowledge and expertise, we can continue to educate more merchants and financial institutions about the emerging threats of payments fraud in the rapidly changing ecommerce and retail industry.

In terms of which attributes contribute most to our competitive advantage, this is best summarised through three key differentiators.

First, we have the most domain expertise, having first hand experience from every stakeholder—our people are our greatest asset.

Second, our services and technology are scalable and configurable supported by a guaranteed ROI.

Third, our connections include relationships and know-how that has culminated over the last decade.

Many studies say fraud is going to continue to increase—what do you think can be done to prevent it?

To combat the rise of fraud and first-party misuse, we must focus on the evolution of technology and shift in consumer behaviours.

Our recent field report also found that two thirds of the merchants have seen first-party misuse rise by an average of 28%, but less than one-third of merchants actively engage in proactive management strategies that big data and technology platforms such as Chargebacks911 can support.

Effective fraud prevention requires a two-pronged approach.

First, businesses must engage in a layered strategy that incorporates rich data analytics and decisioning models that use machine learning and/or artificial intelligence.

Secondly, to establish and maintain accurate decisions, businesses require outcome feedback and insights.

Chargeback and dispute data are arguably the most valuable feedback insight to help train fraud models, but real-time access to the chargebacks and standardised interpretation continues to be a pain point.

Utilising platform technologies to automate the retrieval and response mechanisms is vital to ensuring businesses are able to address evolving demands, changing fraud landscapes and expanding datasets.

For example, if a business builds AI models supported by big data, anti-fraud organisations can detect and prevent fraud attacks sooner rather than later, with faster and more comprehensive data insights.

Embracing this technology can not only prevent chargebacks, but also reputational damage and lost revenue.

What brings you to Money20/20?

Money20/20 is such an exciting opportunity for networking and sharing knowledge with businesses, industry leaders, fintech companies and the payments industry.

Many of the attendees will be brands looking for ways to reduce fraud and increase their bottom line.

We can share our own knowledge and insight into why many chargeback claims may be more be fraudulent or legitimate, and also discuss how merchants can use solutions that will bring AI up to speed and address the problems of chargebacks.

What are you looking forward to most at the event?

I’m looking forward to the many exciting panels that will address the surge in chargebacks and fraud across the payments industry.

The Secure AND User Friendly: Is it Possible? panel, for example, discusses how regulators should manage the balance between safe payments, and a streamlined user experience that also works for merchants.

These types of open discussions about incredibly important issues within our industry are the first steps in developing meaningful solutions.

I’m also looking forward to showcasing some of our latest developments with attendees and discussing with them their biggest pain points when it comes to payments.

Feedback from industry leaders about our products helps us to optimise and refine them to meet the needs of retailers, banks and consumers.

This helps to shape our product development to address the problems our industry faces not only today, but in the future, as well.

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Image: Chargebacks911