G2A is using AI to sniff out suspicious buyers

Online retailer G2A is looking to artificial intelligence to identify fraudulent transactions on its site, using a combination of algorithmic risk assessment and human screening to spot buyers who aren’t who they seem to be. Maciej Kuc, G2A’s communications director, says the company is able to gather a lot of customer data before they ever provide an email address to the site - plenty of identifying information is available as soon as someone visits G2A. “Wherever you go to do any kind of [online] commerce, you provide us with a lot of data,” Kuc said. “Where you’re from, how you react, what you do on the website. After a few seconds, we already know if you’re a high risk.” Feeding detailed user data into tested algorithms gives G2A a pretty decent idea of when fraudulent transactions are likely to happen, and anything that looks suspicious automatically gets flagged for a human staffer to review. The staffer can then verify whether the user’s purchase or browsing history matches what they’re providing on the purchase page, or check for other known indicators of stolen credit card numbers or identity theft, for example.