MaxMind Fraud Protection

Modified on Thu, 22 Feb 2024 at 03:09 PM

MaxMind is a 3rd-party service that uses geolocation tools and other tests to check online orders for fraud. MaxMind does not actually verify cardholder information (this is left to the payment gateway), it instead focuses on verifying that the cardholder is actually the person making the online transaction. It is completely separate from the payment gateway, and serves as an extra level of security above your gateway's standard checks.

See http://www.maxmind.com for more information on how the service works and pricing.

MaxMind has been updated to include Insights and Factors:

MaxMind Fraud Protection now supports Insights and Factors, features which provide additional information about users on your site and aid in fraud protection.
- Score, previously the only Service Type supported, provides a transaction risk score which can filter out bad actors.
- Insights provides additional IP geolocation and research.
- Factors provides additional fraud analysis based on individual factors of a transaction on the site.
- Existing AppConfigs MaxMind.ServiceType and MaxMind.ExplanationLink have been adjusted to account for Insights and Factors.
  - MaxMind.ServiceType now supports values Score, Insights, and Factors and selects which level of analysis to use.
  - MaxMind.ExplanationLink does not need to be modified by the store owner. It is simply a link to explain the scoring process which shows up in the admin console.
- Insights costs more than Score and Factors costs more than Insights.

Thresholds

MaxMind's service works by assigning each transaction a fraud score, with 0.0 being very low risk and 100.0 being the highest risk. Store admins must set several 'threshold' Settings (explained below) to determine how the software should handle orders based on that score. The default values for those Settings are simply recommendations based on information from MaxMind, store admins should feel free to adjust the values based on their business model and fraud rates. They basically represent a percentage chance that the transaction is fraudulent.

Enabling MaxMind

First, visit http://www.maxmind.com and register an account for the MaxMind services.
- IMPORTANT: Be sure to let your MaxMind representative know to ENABLE the "Standard" and "Premium" minFraud services on your account.
Once you have your account information, go to the Site Setup Wizard page and click the Configure Maxmind link. In the window that opens, set the following values appropriately for your site:

Setting Name	Description
MaxMind.Enabled	Set this to Yes to enable the MaxMind service.
MaxMind.AccountID	Your MaxMind Account ID. Issued by MaxMind. Consult MaxMind.com for documentation. The service will not work until this is populated.
MaxMind.DelayDownloadThreshold	If your business sells downloadable products and sends the download emails automatically, the value in this Setting determines when the software will hold off on that email until a store admin can review the order.
MaxMind.DelayDropShipThreshold	If you use drop shipping, the value in this Setting determines when the software will hold off on sending the distributor email until a store admin can review the order.
MaxMind.ExplanationLink	The URL where admins can find more information about the maxmind riskScore. Used on the order management screen.
MaxMind.FailScoreThreshold	This value determines when the software will FAIL an order as fraud. Store administrators can review these orders at Orders > Manage Orders > Failed Transactions
MaxMind.LicenseKey	This key is obtained from MaxMind. The service will not work until this is populated.
MaxMind.LogWarnings	If yes, warnings generated by the MaxMind API will be logged to the system log. We recommend leaving this TRUE
MaxMind.ServiceType	This can be set to either "standard" or "premium". By default, we use the highest level of service available for your account. If you have both the premium and standard minFraud service, you can choose to use the standard service to save on costs. This can be set to "Score", "Insights" or "Factors". Set to Score for the simplest, least expensive minFraud option. Set to Insights or Factors for enhanced fraud intelligence data. All services provide MaxMind's riskScore to enable real-time fraud decisions using MaxMind.FailScoreThreshold.

Device Tracking

MaxMind now supports device tracking. The Device Tracking for the minFraud services identifies devices as they move across networks and enhances the ability of the minFraud services to detect fraud. If a fraudster changes proxies while they are browsing your website or between visits to your website, you may observe an increased risk score in the minFraud output associated with their transactions.

MaxMind may increase the risk score if they detect order velocity on the device. They also return a device ID in minFraud Insights and Factors so that you can do your own modeling around device ID.

Device tracking is optional.
Device tracking can be enabled on AspDotNetStorefronts that have FTP access available. Please contact the Help Desk with requests for this feature.

If you are not currently on the AIMStorefront Ultra tier, we can not grant you FTP access but if you need help implementing this code, please send in a support ticket to our team.