Global merchant fraud is estimated to drive losses of $41 billion dollars in 2023 with 29% - or nearly $12 billion dollars - in Europe. While cyber fraud and social engineering present the highest risk, Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (ACFE) research estimates that fraud by vendors and sellers is also increasing globally - as high as 69% annually - driven in large part by the continued post-pandemic surge in e-commerce. To fulfil its commitment to combat the increased trend of fraud risk, PAYSTRAX selected VikingCloud for its patented and unique ability to swiftly detect illegal online sales and marketing activities across its European merchant portfolio.

With VikingCloud’s managed monitoring service, PAYSTRAX and other acquirers can ensure everything marketed and sold by their merchants complies with local laws, regulations, and card brand requirements, such as MasterCard’s Business Risk Assessment and Mitigation (BRAM) and Visa’s Integrity Risk Program (VIRP), formerly the Global Brand Protection Program (GBPP). VikingCloud’s risk and compliance experts also keep acquirers updated on changing rules and regulations as part of the managed solution.

With VikingCloud’s Web Risk Monitoring, PAYSTRAX will be able to regularly scan each merchant’s website(s), identify illegal products, and discover merchants hiding illegal transactions in otherwise legitimate businesses. It will also detect web-based malware card skimming attacks, and find merchants that violate PAYSTRAX’s terms of service, all in real time using VikingCloud’s custom dashboard.

This regular scanning process is designed to effectively mitigate PAYSTRAX’s risk of incurring fines and increased fees associated with illegal marketing and sales practices across their European merchant client portfolio.

Jim Burke, Chief Executive Officer at VikingCloud, said: “The PAYSTRAX team has decades of experience in the financial transaction industry and is leading the way in Lithuania’s fintech market - one of the fastest growing and most respected in Europe. Our unique Web Risk Monitoring tool provides PAYSTRAX with a quick and easy way to monitor and report on risks, providing valuable insights through a customisable and intuitive dashboard. We’re confident that the tool will play a pivotal role in the company’s growth and we are excited to being part of their journey.”

Jóhannes Ingi Kolbeinsson, Chief Executive Officer at PAYSTRAX, added: “As soon as we identified the need for a global solution to detect non-compliance issues promptly and prevent them going forward, there was no question about who our partner should be. We’ve seen first-hand why VikingCloud earned its reputation as the ‘go-to’ partner for payment processors with its Web Risk Monitoring tool that’s genuinely unrivalled. It offers the exact capabilities we needed and provides invaluable access to additional risk reduction expert solutions in the future.”