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Using Test Automation To Fight Fraud
Using Test Automation To Fight Fraud
January 31, 2025
Digital payments continue to surge in popularity, while exact numbers are hard to find, a conservative estimate of 25 billion credit and debit cards in circulation worldwide are now generating nearly a trillion payment transactions annually.
Unfortunately, as the number of transactions and payment options continues to grow, so does card fraud. According to a recent news release from the Nilson Report, card fraud losses will continue to increase, totaling a staggering $404 billion globally over the next decade.
The United States, in particular, will continue to be impacted significantly, largely due to the prevalence of eCommerce transactions and a reluctance to implement stricter fraud-fighting technologies. According to the Nilson release, the US accounted for approximately 25% of card spending worldwide in 2023 but experienced more than 42% of global fraud losses.
As criminals become more sophisticated and aggressive in their tactics, the need for robust fraud detection and prevention strategies becomes more critical than ever before. By leveraging advanced technologies, including the adoption of testing automation tools, financial industry participants can significantly improve their ability to detect and prevent card fraud.
How Test Automation Helps Combat Card Fraud
Testing automation plays a vital role in the fight against card fraud by:
- Increasing Test Coverage: Manual testing is time-consuming and expensive, and it's nearly impossible to test every single possible scenario. Automation allows for more comprehensive testing, covering a wider range of transactions and identifying vulnerabilities that manual testing might miss. That’s not to say that manual testing isn’t still critical. Learn more about how the two work hand-in-hand for better testing results.
- Improving Accuracy: Human error is a reality in manual testing. Automation m inimizes this risk, ensuring that tests are run consistently and accurately every time.
- More Efficient and Faster Testing Cycles: Automation can significantly reduce the time it takes to complete test cycles. This is crucial in today's fast-paced environment, where new fraud threats emerge rapidly and without warning.
- More Effective Use of Resources: By automating repetitive tasks, testing and QA teams can free up time to focus on more strategic initiatives, such as developing new fraud detection methods. These initiatives allow organizations to drive further value to the consumer.
“77% of cardholders expect their bank or credit union to leverage technology for better fraud prevention, underscoring the growing demand for advanced security measures.”
Test Automation Use Cases for Reducing Fraud
The following are some specific examples of how testing automation can be used to help detect, prevent, and respond to card fraud situations:
- Testing the Effectiveness of Fraud Detection Rules: Automation can be used to easily simulate known fraudulent transactions and test whether the system's fraud detection rules are able to identify them and respond correctly.
- Testing for New Vulnerabilities: The speed and efficiency of automated testing make it easier to expand test coverage and look for potential fraud scenarios, such as unusual transaction patterns, and create rules to address them before they cause issues.
- Improved Response Times: Testing automation greatly increases the speed at which tests can be run, reducing the time required to complete test cycles and respond to active or imminent security threats.
“Threat actors continue to probe organizations and networks for vulnerabilities in systems and processes to conduct extensive and complicated operations with expansive downstream ecosystem impacts.”
- Visa, Biannual Threats Report, Fall 2024
Preventing Card Fraud Takes a Village
Effectively managing the ongoing battle against card fraud requires focus, discipline, and close cooperation between developers, testers, and business units. The use of testing automation to improve the speed, accuracy, and productivity of your testing operations will help shield your organization from fraudsters and give you an edge over your competition.
At Paragon Application Systems, we believe that a comprehensive payment testing strategy, supported by innovative and robust testing capabilities is necessary for any financial services company to address both the opportunities and threats presented by the rapidly evolving payments landscape.
With over 30 years of experience in payment testing, we’ve helped many of the largest and most sophisticated payment industry leaders keep their mission-critical payment systems secure, compliant, and operating at peak efficiency.
Interested in learning more about how testing automation can help your organization improve its defenses in the ongoing fight against fraud?
Reach out to our team of payment testing professionals today.
Included In This Story
Paragon Application Systems
Paragon ATM simulation tools provide the features, functions and flexible automation options so that you can run more tests in less time - improving quality, shortening delivery cycles, reducing costs, fostering collaboration, and increasing channel profitability.
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