Guest: Soups Ranjan
Let’s break this down.
In this episode of Fraudology, I’m joined by Soups Ranjan, co-founder and CEO of Sardine and someone I’ve known in the fraud prevention space for a long time. Soups works closely with hundreds of merchants and financial companies around the world, so he has a pretty unique vantage point into what fraud actually looks like right now.
And here’s the reality.
Fraud isn’t just about stolen credit cards anymore. The attacks we’re seeing across ecommerce and financial services are getting more layered. Return fraud, refund abuse, seller fraud, and even B2B fraud are all evolving in ways that make detection harder for merchants and marketplaces.
At first glance, some of these attacks can look like normal customer behavior. A return request. A refund claim. A new marketplace seller onboarding. But when you dig into the patterns, you start to see how fraudsters are manipulating systems that were originally designed to improve the customer experience.
And that’s the challenge.
Fraud prevention teams have to protect revenue without breaking legitimate user flows. Which means detection systems have to become more sophisticated.
Here is what that seller fraud prevention challenge means in practice:
- return fraud trends exploiting ecommerce refund policies
- marketplace seller risk emerging through fraudulent seller onboarding
- refund abuse detection becoming critical for ecommerce profitability
- fraud detection systems evolving with new machine learning fraud models
What you’ll hear in this episode
- Why seller fraud prevention is becoming a major priority for marketplaces
- How return fraud and refund abuse are evolving in ecommerce
- Why proxy and VPN detection matters for modern fraud investigations
- How device behavior analysis improves fraud detection accuracy
- Why bank-grade fraud security is needed to protect stored value accounts
You should listen to this episode if you
- run fraud or risk teams at an ecommerce marketplace
- investigate return fraud or refund abuse cases
- manage seller onboarding and marketplace risk controls
- build fraud detection systems for financial services platforms
- want to understand emerging fraud patterns affecting merchants
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Episode notes & key takeaways
Seller fraud prevention is becoming critical for online marketplaces
Marketplaces have created incredible opportunities for ecommerce growth. They allow merchants to onboard new sellers quickly and expand product selection without holding inventory themselves.
But that same flexibility also creates risk.
Fraudsters are increasingly targeting seller onboarding systems. By creating fraudulent seller accounts, attackers can list fake products, manipulate transactions, or run short-term scams before disappearing from the platform.
Operational indicators may include:
- seller onboarding fraud targeting marketplace verification systems
- marketplace seller risk tied to weak identity verification controls
- merchant risk scoring helping identify suspicious seller activity
- B2B fraud prevention becoming important for marketplace ecosystems
This is why seller fraud prevention has become such an important focus for ecommerce platforms.
Return fraud and refund abuse are evolving rapidly
Another theme we explore in this episode is the continued growth of return fraud and refund abuse across ecommerce platforms.
Retailers often design return systems to reduce friction for legitimate customers. But fraudsters study those systems carefully and learn how to exploit them.
Some attackers repeatedly return used or stolen items. Others manipulate refund policies to receive refunds without sending products back at all.
Operational indicators may include:
- return fraud trends exploiting flexible return policies
- refund abuse detection identifying repeat refund patterns
- return abuse controls analyzing product return behaviors
- refund fraud prevention using transaction-level risk analysis
For many merchants, return abuse can quietly become one of the largest hidden sources of fraud loss.
Stored value accounts are increasingly targeted for account takeover
One area that often gets overlooked in fraud prevention discussions is stored value. Loyalty points, airline miles, gift balances, and reward programs all represent real financial value.
And attackers know it.
If those accounts are not protected with strong authentication and behavioral monitoring, they can become easy targets for account takeover fraud.
Operational indicators may include:
- stored value account takeover targeting loyalty programs
- airline miles fraud exploiting weak account protection
- loyalty points fraud monetizing reward balances
- account takeover protection requiring stronger authentication controls
The key takeaway here is that stored value systems deserve the same bank-grade fraud security as financial accounts.
Modern fraud detection relies on behavioral and device intelligence
The final topic Soups and I explore involves the growing role of device intelligence and behavioral signals in fraud detection systems.
Traditional fraud tools often rely on static signals like IP addresses or location. But attackers increasingly use proxies and VPN infrastructure to hide those signals.
That’s why fraud systems are moving toward deeper analysis of device behavior and machine learning models that identify suspicious patterns over time.
Operational indicators may include:
- proxy and VPN detection identifying masked attacker infrastructure
- device behavior analysis detecting abnormal user patterns
- machine learning fraud models adapting to evolving fraud tactics
- ecommerce fraud detection technology improving investigative visibility
As fraud becomes more sophisticated, fraud prevention tools need to evolve just as quickly.
Because in the end, fraud prevention isn’t just about blocking transactions. It’s about understanding behavior and identifying patterns before losses occur.
