Topic starter
10/07/2026 9:13 pm
TL;DR: Transaction volume across its Global Data Network grew 15.2% from Q1 2025 to Q1 2026 while global payment fraud block rates fell and account takeover rates dropped 28%, but coordinated fraud rings spanning 90+ businesses and a 383% rise in online gambling payment fraud show the risk is becoming less visible, not disappearing, according to Sift. Averages are no longer enough: network linkage, behavioural signals, and post-incident response now shape fraud governance.
Editorial analysis by NHI Mgmt Group, based on content published by Sift: “To Understand Today’s Fraud Economy, Look Beyond the Averages”.
Key questions
Q: Why do fraud rings evade transaction-level detection so often?
A: Fraud rings spread activity across accounts, devices, merchants, and payment methods so no single transaction looks decisive.
Q: When should teams prioritise network analytics over stricter transaction rules?
A: Teams should prioritise network analytics when fraud is moving across merchants, channels, or payment methods, or when false positives rise after tightening local rules.
Q: What are the signs that account takeover controls are too weak or too disruptive?
A: Weak controls usually show up as repeated login anomalies, suspicious password reset activity, sudden changes in device or location patterns, and account abuse that slips through unchanged.
Practitioner guidance
- Build network linkage into fraud review Correlate accounts, devices, payment instruments, merchants, and transaction histories so suspicious relationships are visible even when single events look normal.
- Extend ATO monitoring beyond login events Track post-authentication changes such as profile edits, payout destination updates, device changes, and unusual purchase behavior after access is granted.
- Tune thresholds by channel and payment method Separate rules for high-loss and low-loss flows, because the article shows that uniform controls underperform when order values and fraud rates vary widely.
Bottom line: Fraud can look healthier in aggregate while the real attack pattern becomes harder to detect across connected accounts and merchants.
Explore further
View Full Forum → | NHI Foundation Course → | Our Services → | Read the full analysis →
10/07/2026 9:36 pm
Fraud governance is shifting from event detection to relationship detection. The article shows that average block rates can improve while the actual abuse pattern becomes harder to see. That matters because modern fraud rings operate across merchants, devices, accounts, and payment methods, which means the control boundary has moved from the transaction to the network. For practitioners, the decisive question is whether the programme can correlate identity behavior across the full customer journey.
A few things that frame the scale:
- Nearly 60% of companies reported that fraud losses were still increasing in 2025.
A question worth separating out:
Q: How should fraud teams respond when the same ring spans multiple businesses?
A: They should shift from merchant-specific case handling to coordinated investigation across the affected network. Shared identifiers, common devices, and reused payment instruments need to be reviewed together so the ring can be contained as one pattern. Otherwise each business sees only a fragment and the operation persists.
👉 Read our full editorial: Fraud detection is improving while networked attacks are harder to see