SQL patterns I use to catch transaction fraud

(analytics.fixelsmith.com)

48 points | by redbell 5 hours ago

5 comments

  • crmd 26 minutes ago
    > Drawback: this doesn’t work until you have history. New accounts have no baseline.

    This is an underrated CX factor: If my card gets denied when i’m a new customer or exhibiting a new pattern, i’m impressed with their software.

    However if they deny a transaction where there is any previous history of me authenticating, then I’m frustrated by their naive paranoid algorithm.

  • jstanley 32 minutes ago
    > Real cardholders almost never buy something for exactly $1.00. Coffee is $4.73, gas is $52.81. The roundness is the signal.

    Surely this depends on how the vendor sets their prices? If you're going to buy something from a website to test a stolen credit card you don't just get to make up your own prices.

    And I think you may be over-indexing on the US "prices don't include tax" thing. Elsewhere, round-number prices are extremely common.

    In fact a lot of the rest of the stuff in the post seems like it wouldn't work very well either. (E.g. you're flagging anyone who has done a transaction in the last 90 days outside the range of hours at which they have 2+ transactions? Wouldn't that be like 50% of people?).

    It's unclear to me whether this article is an attempt at breaking down complex expertise into over-simplified SQL queries, or whether it is all speculative and made up.

    There is a conflict between "Six SQL patterns I use to catch transaction fraud" and "Nothing here comes from anything I’ve actually worked on or seen".

    • normie3000 5 minutes ago
      Worse than that.

      Coffee usually _is_ a round number in my experience, and I know of people who aim for round numbers when filling their car, and of fuel stations which require a pre-set value, often 10, 20, 50€ etc

  • maciekkmrk 4 minutes ago
    What if I go on a roadtrip and suddenly get gas at 2am?
  • achierius 5 minutes ago
    This seems interesting, but has so many signs of AI writing that I worry it's not just edited but generated from whole cloth. Probably still a lot of truth in there but it does give me pause!

    > The roundness is the signal.

    > Slight pain, same result.

    to point at a few.

  • sincerely 5 minutes ago
    This is quite interesting, but the blatantly AI generated explanations are like an anti-signal for quality