Forter - Detailed Review
Privacy Tools
Forter - Product Overview
Forter Overview
Forter is a leading provider of Identity Intelligence solutions for digital commerce, particularly focusing on fraud prevention and identity verification.Primary Function
Forter’s primary function is to help businesses know who they are doing business with, ensuring that every digital commerce interaction is secure and legitimate. The company achieves this through its Decision as a Service platform, which makes real-time decisions on transactions based on advanced machine learning algorithms and comprehensive data analysis.Target Audience
Forter’s target audience includes e-commerce businesses of all sizes, online retailers, and financial institutions. These entities benefit from Forter’s solutions to reduce fraud, improve customer experience, and drive sales growth. The platform is also suitable for e-commerce platforms hosting multiple retailers and global businesses operating in various regions.Key Features
Real-Time Decision Making
Forter’s platform provides real-time decisions on transactions, enabling quick identification and prevention of fraudulent activities.Machine Learning Technology
The company utilizes advanced machine learning algorithms to continuously analyze and adapt to new fraud patterns, ensuring up-to-date protection.Low False Positive Rates
Forter minimizes false positives by leveraging a vast network of data and machine learning models, ensuring legitimate transactions are not mistakenly flagged as fraudulent.Scalability
The solution is highly scalable, accommodating the needs of retailers from small businesses to enterprise-level organizations.Enhanced Customer Experience
By reducing the risk of fraud and minimizing disruptions to the shopping experience, Forter helps retailers enhance customer satisfaction and loyalty.Cost-Effective Solution
Forter’s fraud prevention solution helps retailers lower costs associated with chargebacks, manual reviews, and fraud-related losses.Additional Focus
Forter also places a strong emphasis on privacy and security. The company provides clear information on how it collects, protects, and uses data, and it has self-certified with various data privacy frameworks such as the EU-US, UK-US, and Swiss-US Data Privacy Frameworks.Conclusion
By combining advanced technology with deep expertise in fraud prevention, Forter offers a comprehensive solution that protects businesses from fraud while enhancing the overall customer experience. Forter - User Interface and Experience
When Examining Forter’s User Interface and Experience
When examining the user interface and experience of Forter, particularly in the context of their AI-driven fraud prevention tools, several key aspects stand out:
Real-Time Decision Making and Visualization
Forter’s platform is equipped with advanced visualization tools that provide clear and immediate insights into transaction decisions. The Decision Explainability feature, for instance, enhances the Forter portal with new visualization tools that give users greater visibility into the risk decisions made on transactions. This allows users to see the specific dimensions and attributes that influence approval or decline decisions, making the decision-making process more transparent and understandable.
AI Insights and Analytics
The AI Insights feature leverages generative AI to provide instant answers to critical business questions. This tool delivers tailored dashboards with actionable data, enabling users to analyze various metrics such as chargeback rates, promotion abuse, and other key performance indicators. The Enhanced Analytics & Reporting feature also offers comprehensive dashboards that provide a detailed view of customer and performance metrics, including approved logins, fraud prevention data, and business metrics like customer retention and average order value (AOV).
User-Friendly Dashboards
Forter’s interface includes user-friendly dashboards that are simple and consistent in style. The Forter Decision Dashboard, for example, offers a single, easy-to-use interface where users can gain deeper insights into individual transactions, fraud incidents, customer trends, and various business KPIs. This centralized dashboard helps in quickly identifying key metrics and trends, making it easier for users to manage and analyze their data.
Policy Builder and Alerts
The Policy Builder feature allows users to create, modify, simulate, and enforce custom policies during the sign-up process. This tool reduces fraud without adding unnecessary friction to the user experience. Users can set alerts for specific policy thresholds, ensuring optimal security and performance while maintaining a smooth customer experience.
Ease of Use
Forter’s platform is designed to be highly automated, eliminating the need for manual reviews and delays in fulfillment. The full automation of fraud decisions means that users do not have to manually intervene in the approval or decline process, making the overall experience more efficient and streamlined.
Transparency and Feedback
The platform provides ongoing feedback mechanisms, allowing users to provide input to the Forter team to ensure the fraud prevention solution is fully optimized for their specific business needs. This feedback loop helps in continuously improving the accuracy and effectiveness of the fraud prevention measures.
Conclusion
In summary, Forter’s user interface is characterized by its transparency, real-time decision-making capabilities, and user-friendly dashboards. These features combine to provide an efficient, automated, and insightful experience for users, helping them to effectively manage and prevent fraud while enhancing the overall customer experience.
Forter - Key Features and Functionality
Introduction
Forter, a leading e-commerce fraud prevention platform, integrates advanced AI and machine learning to provide a comprehensive suite of features that protect businesses from various forms of fraud. Here are the main features and how they work:
Intelligence and Risk Assessment
Risk Assessment
This feature flags suspicious transactions and either alerts administrators or declines the transaction automatically. It uses historical data and real-time monitoring to assess the risk associated with each transaction.
Intelligence Reporting
Forter actively gathers data on suspicious purchasing sources and characteristics of common fraudsters. This reporting helps in identifying patterns and trends in fraudulent activities.
Fraud Detection
Fraud Detection
Forter’s system uses machine learning to identify patterns in common occurrences of fraud. It evaluates transactions based on a vast dataset, allowing it to detect both known and new forms of fraud.
Real-Time Monitoring
The platform constantly monitors the system to detect anomalies in real-time, ensuring immediate action against suspicious activities.
AI and Machine Learning Integration
Integrated Intelligence
Forter combines machine learning with human expertise through ongoing research and analysis. This approach, known as Integrated Intelligence, ensures the system learns automatically and is continually refined by human experts. This combination allows for highly accurate and instant approve/decline decisions.
Automated Decision Making
Full Automation
Forter’s platform eliminates the need for manual reviews and delays in fulfillment. It provides real-time approve/decline decisions on all transactions, enhancing the customer shopping experience and streamlining business operations.
Transaction Scoring and Approval
Transaction Scoring
Each transaction is rated based on specific factors and benchmarked scores to determine its risk level. This scoring system helps in making accurate decisions about transaction approval or decline.
Instant Approve/Decline Decisions
Decisions are made in under a second, allowing merchants to approve more genuine transactions and reduce false declines significantly.
Payment Verification and Security
Payment Verification
Forter requires verification of credit cards, debit cards, and other payment methods prior to accepting payments. This ensures that only legitimate transactions are approved.
Smart 3DS
This feature helps in shifting chargeback liability to the issuing banks, further reducing chargeback costs for merchants.
Bot Mitigation and Device Tracking
Bot Mitigation
The system monitors for and eliminates bots suspected of committing fraud, protecting against automated fraudulent activities.
Device Tracking
Forter keeps records of geographic locations and IP addresses of fraud suspects, helping in identifying and blocking fraudulent activities.
Fraud Chargeback Guarantee and Business Policies
Full Fraud Chargeback Guarantee
Forter guarantees that 100% of approved transactions are covered against fraud chargebacks, providing merchants with financial protection.
Enforce Business Policies
The platform can enforce identity-based business rules on top of the statistical model, allowing merchants to implement their specific business policies.
Scalability and Performance
Built for Growth
Forter’s fully automated fraud prevention system scales with the business, supporting omnichannel, multi-device transactions without increasing fraud risks. This ensures seamless operation during peak demand periods.
Insights and Reporting
The Forter Decision Dashboard
This dashboard provides deeper insights into individual transactions, incidents of fraud, customer trends, and various business KPIs. It helps merchants in making informed decisions and optimizing their fraud prevention strategies.
Account-level Fraud-related Insights
Forter offers comprehensive insights into referral fraud, coupon abuse, account takeovers, loyalty fraud, and more, enhancing the merchant’s view into their business ecosystem.
These features collectively ensure that Forter provides a comprehensive, AI-driven fraud prevention solution that protects businesses from various forms of fraud while enhancing the customer experience and supporting business growth.
Forter - Performance and Accuracy
Performance
Forter’s solution is highly automated and leverages advanced machine learning combined with human expertise, a concept they term “Integrated Intelligence.” This approach allows for real-time, highly accurate decisions on transactions and authentication attempts. Here are some performance highlights:Key Highlights
- Forter’s system provides instant approve/decline decisions on every transaction, ensuring scalability and speed even with high traffic volumes.
- The integration with Auth0 enables seamless authentication processes, where Forter’s APIs can be called during the authentication flow to make accurate recommendations on whether to allow, deny, or challenge the user with MFA. This evaluation happens in milliseconds, ensuring minimal friction for valid users.
- The system is fully automated, eliminating the need for manual reviews and allowing fraud teams to focus on more critical tasks and customer service.
Accuracy
Forter’s accuracy is a significant strength:Strengths
- The system combines advanced cyber intelligence with behavioral and identity analysis, creating a multi-layered fraud detection mechanism. This approach ensures that the system learns from every transaction and adapts quickly to new fraudster techniques.
- By analyzing both “hard” data points (like IP address and OS) and historical user behavior, Forter achieves high accuracy in identifying legitimate users and blocking malicious actors. This reduces the likelihood of false positives and minimizes friction for valid users.
- The integration of human research and analysis alongside machine learning ensures that the system is continually refined and updated to meet the latest fraud trends.
Limitations and Areas for Improvement
While Forter’s solution is highly regarded, there are some limitations and areas where improvements could be considered:Areas for Improvement
- Some users have reported occasional false positives where legitimate transactions or users are incorrectly blocked. This highlights the need for continuous fine-tuning of the system to minimize such errors.
- Merchants have noted that they have limited control over the decision-making process within Forter’s system. This could be an area for improvement, as some users might prefer more customizable settings or greater transparency into the decision-making process.
Engagement and User Experience
Forter’s solution is designed to be user-friendly and minimize friction:User Experience
- The system is easy to use and understand, with real-time information that is outstanding according to user reviews. This ease of use contributes to a positive user experience.
- The integration with other tools, such as Auth0, is seamless, allowing for a smooth authentication process that does not disrupt the user experience.
Forter - Pricing and Plans
Pricing Structure of Forter
When it comes to the pricing structure of Forter, the company does not provide a one-size-fits-all pricing model. Here are some key points to consider:Custom Pricing
Forter offers custom pricing that is tailored to the specific needs of each business. This approach ensures that the pricing reflects the unique requirements and goals of the client, such as improving customer experience, managing fraud and abuse, and optimizing transaction approval and chargeback rates.Key Considerations
To get a custom price quote, businesses need to consider several factors:- Whether they want to move beyond chargeback guarantees and improve both approval and chargeback rates.
- Whether they need to address fraud, abuse, account takeovers, and other issues.
- Whether they want to analyze all interactions or a targeted subset of transactions.
Pricing Models
Forter offers flexibility in its pricing models:- Chargeback Guarantee: This model allows businesses to shift liability for chargebacks to issuers using effective data sharing through 3DS.
- Uncovered Agreements: For businesses with good performance, this model eliminates the need to pay premiums for a chargeback guarantee, so they only pay for the solutions used.
- Adjustable Pricing: Businesses can start with a chargeback guarantee and later shift to an uncovered agreement as their performance improves.
Transparency and Guarantees
Forter’s pricing is transparent and contractually guaranteed. The company guarantees both chargeback and approval rates, which is a unique feature in the industry.No Free Trial or Freemium Version
Forter does not offer a free trial or a freemium version of its service. The pricing is based on custom contracts that are typically suited for enterprise-level businesses.Annual Costs
According to Vendr, the average annual cost for Forter software is approximately $81,788, though this can vary based on the specific needs of the business.Summary
In summary, Forter’s pricing is highly customized and based on the specific requirements and goals of each client, with no standard tiers or free options available. Forter - Integration and Compatibility
Forter Overview
Forter, a leading provider of e-commerce fraud prevention, integrates seamlessly with various platforms and tools to offer comprehensive fraud protection and identity verification. Here are some key points on its integration and compatibility:Integration with Magento
Forter has a dedicated extension for Magento, compatible with Adobe Commerce (cloud and on-prem) and Magento Open Source versions 2.4 and 2.3. This extension automates fraud prevention by interacting with the order and payment models in Magento, sending transactions to Forter for real-time validation and approval or decline decisions. It supports multiple payment methods, including Braintree, PayPal Express, and Authorize.net, and has undergone several updates to improve compatibility and functionality.Integration with AWS
Forter leverages Amazon Web Services (AWS) to deliver its identity-based fraud decisioning. As part of the AWS Independent Software Vendor (ISV) Accelerate Program, Forter ensures 99.99% availability across multiple Availability Zones and Regions. This partnership enhances the reliability and scalability of Forter’s solution, which includes AI/ML-based decision engines and data research tools. Forter has also achieved the AWS Retail Competency, ensuring its solutions meet high standards of security and performance.Integration with Commercetools
Forter integrates with the commercetools platform, allowing merchants to implement enterprise-grade fraud prevention solutions. The Forter plugin for commercetools enables merchants to receive seamless fraud or policy decisions at checkout. Merchants can customize the mapping and decision handling files based on their specific setup, payment gateway, and Forter offerings.Cross-Platform Compatibility
Forter’s platform is designed to be highly compatible and scalable. It works across various devices and browsers, including Chrome, Firefox, Opera, Safari, Edge, and IE. This ensures that merchants can operate their businesses smoothly without any negative impacts on their site’s performance.Additional Features and Updates
Forter continuously updates its platform to enhance decision accuracy, increase visibility and control, and reduce sign-up friction. Recent updates include advanced fraud prevention features, smoother sign-up flows, and expanded partnerships with AWS and other providers. Forter also ensures global compliance with the addition of new data centers, such as the EU data center introduced in October 2024.Conclusion
In summary, Forter integrates effectively with multiple e-commerce platforms, including Magento and commercetools, and leverages AWS for enhanced reliability and scalability. Its compatibility across different devices and browsers ensures a seamless and secure user experience. Forter - Customer Support and Resources
Customer Support Portals
Forter provides a dedicated Customer Support portal where you can raise various types of requests. Here, you can submit tickets for different needs:Question in Customer Support
If you have questions about the platform or any of its features, you can submit a ticket to get assistance.Report an Issue in Customer Support
For any issues that do not have a specific form, you can use this general form to report the problem.Analytics Queries in Customer Support
If you have questions or need adjustments related to analytical policies or transactions, this form is available.API / Integrations in Customer Support
For any questions or issues regarding Forter’s API, extensions, or webhooks, you can submit a ticket here.Security and Compliance Resources
Forter emphasizes strong security and compliance, which is crucial for their AI-driven products. They provide detailed information on their security measures, including compliance with standards such as SOC 2 (Type 2), PCI DSS, ISO 27001, and ISO 27701. This ensures that your data is protected according to industry-leading standards. You can find more information on their security practices and certifications on the Security Hub page.Product-Specific Resources
For specific products like Forter Element for Payment Service Providers (PSPs), there are resources that explain how the product works, its benefits, and how it integrates with your systems. This includes information on accurate fraud prevention, easy onboarding, and detailed analytics to help improve transaction approval rates and reduce false positives.Privacy Policy and Data Protection
Forter’s Privacy Policy outlines how they collect, use, and protect your personal data. The policy explains what data is collected, how it is used, and with whom it is shared. It also details the measures taken to safeguard your information and your rights regarding your personal data. By utilizing these resources, you can get comprehensive support and ensure that you are making the most out of Forter’s AI-driven fraud prevention solutions while maintaining the security and privacy of your data. Forter - Pros and Cons
Advantages of Forter
Real-Time Fraud Prevention
Forter uses advanced machine learning algorithms to analyze every transaction in real-time, enabling it to detect and prevent fraud as it happens. This helps online retailers minimize losses and avoid chargebacks.End-to-End Fraud Protection
Forter provides comprehensive fraud protection from the initial transaction to the final delivery of goods, ensuring all aspects of the business are safeguarded against fraudulent activity.Instant Approvals
The platform combines AI and human expertise to provide instant approvals for legitimate transactions, enhancing the customer experience by reducing wait times for order processing.Chargeback Guarantee
Forter offers a chargeback guarantee, covering the cost of any chargebacks resulting from fraudulent transactions it fails to detect. This reduces financial risk for online retailers.Customizable Rules
Forter allows merchants to create customizable rules for fraud prevention, which can be adapted to their specific business needs and industry.Multi-Channel Support
The platform supports multiple channels, including web, mobile, and in-store transactions, ensuring a consistent fraud prevention experience across all sales channels.Automated Decision-Making
Forter’s system is fully automated, providing sub-second decisions without the need for manual reviews. This automation helps in scaling the business without increasing manual overhead.Data Privacy and Security
Forter prioritizes customer data privacy and security, ensuring compliance with global privacy laws and regulations. It does not sell customer data and uses it solely for fraud prevention and abuse mitigation.Excellent Customer Support
Forter is praised for its great support team, which is proactive and helpful in resolving issues and implementing creative solutions to new problems.Disadvantages of Forter
Cost
Forter is a premium service and can be costly, especially for smaller businesses or those with lower transaction volumes. This may be a significant expense for online retailers just starting out.False Positives
There is a risk of false positives, where legitimate transactions are flagged as fraudulent and declined. This can lead to lost sales and revenue.Integration Challenges
Forter may not integrate seamlessly with some legacy systems, requiring additional development work or customization. This can be challenging for retailers without dedicated technical resources.Limited Data Access
Forter does not provide full access to raw transaction data, limiting the ability of online retailers to perform their own analyses and generate insights.Limited Customization for Niche Markets
While Forter offers customizable rules, some retailers in highly specialized or niche markets may find the customization options insufficient to address unique fraud patterns.Initial Setup Time
The initial setup of Forter can be time-consuming, which may be a drawback for some merchants who need a quicker implementation process.Technical Issues
Some users have reported issues such as the portal loading slowly and filtering options not being optimal. Additionally, Forter does not support Safari. By considering these points, businesses can make an informed decision about whether Forter’s fraud prevention solution aligns with their specific needs and capabilities. Forter - Comparison with Competitors
When Comparing Forter to Other AI-Driven Privacy and Security Tools
Several key differences and similarities emerge.
Unique Features of Forter
- Identity-Based Decisions: Forter stands out by making fraud prevention decisions based on a comprehensive analysis of identity, including behavioral, device, location, and transaction data. This approach is more effective than traditional rules-based systems that can be manipulated by fraudsters.
- Independent Dataset: Forter has the largest independent dataset of online identities, allowing it to make more accurate decisions by seeing across multiple platforms and over time. This dataset is not limited to a single payment provider’s data silo.
- Performance Guarantees: Unlike many competitors, Forter contractually guarantees its performance metrics, reflecting its confidence in its ability to deliver superior fraud prevention results.
- Combination of AI and Human Intelligence: Forter’s system is fully automated but continuously refined by human experts who research transaction data, consumer buying patterns, and the latest fraudster techniques. This combination ensures the system learns automatically and adapts to new data in real-time.
Potential Alternatives and Comparisons
Securiti AI
- While Forter focuses on fraud prevention, Securiti AI is a broader data privacy and security platform. It offers features like automated sensitive data discovery, AI-powered risk assessments, consent management, and zero-trust access controls. Securiti AI is more comprehensive in terms of data governance and compliance but does not specialize in fraud prevention like Forter.
- Implementation and Cost: Securiti AI can be complex to implement for large enterprises and has high licensing costs for full-feature access, which might be a consideration for some users.
DataGrail
- DataGrail is another data privacy management platform that, like Securiti AI, focuses on compliance and data governance. It offers real-time data mapping, automated DSR management, and privacy risk assessments. However, it does not have the specific fraud prevention capabilities that Forter provides.
Protecto
- Protecto is an AI-driven data privacy platform that specializes in protecting sensitive information in AI applications. It detects PII, PHI, and PCI across large datasets and ensures compliance with regulations like GDPR, HIPAA, and CCPA. Protecto does not address fraud prevention directly but is a strong option for companies prioritizing AI security and data masking.
Key Considerations
- Scope of Solution: If your primary need is fraud prevention with a focus on identity-based decisions and performance guarantees, Forter is a strong choice. For broader data privacy and security needs, including compliance and governance, Securiti AI or DataGrail might be more suitable.
- Implementation and Cost: The complexity and cost of implementation are important factors. Forter’s specialized focus might make it easier to integrate for fraud prevention, while Securiti AI and DataGrail may require more extensive setup due to their broader feature sets.
In summary, while Forter excels in AI-powered fraud prevention with unique features like identity-based decisions and performance guarantees, other tools like Securiti AI and DataGrail offer more comprehensive data privacy and security solutions that might be necessary for organizations with broader needs.
Forter - Frequently Asked Questions
What is Forter and what does it do?
Forter is a Trust Platform for digital commerce that specializes in fraud management, identity protection, payment optimization, chargeback recovery, and abuse prevention. It uses AI and machine learning to assess the trustworthiness of every digital interaction, helping businesses block fraudsters and approve legitimate transactions.
How does Forter use AI and machine learning in fraud prevention?
Forter combines advanced machine learning with human intelligence to detect and prevent fraud. Its system is fully automated and provides instant approve/decline decisions by analyzing transactions on both an individual and macro level. This approach includes behavioral and identity analysis, and the system learns from every transaction to adapt to a particular merchant’s risk profile.
What features does Forter offer for fraud detection and prevention?
Forter offers several key features, including Risk Assessment, Fraud Detection, Real-Time Monitoring, ID Analytics, and Intelligence Reporting. It also includes capabilities such as transaction scoring, alerts for suspected fraud, device tracking, and blacklisting of previous fraud committers. Additionally, Forter has enhanced its models to detect more instances of fraud, including device spoofing, buyer-seller collusion, address manipulation, and account takeover attempts.
How does Forter ensure decision visibility and explainability?
Forter has enhanced its portal to provide greater visibility into transaction risk decisions. This includes insights into the key data dimensions influencing Forter’s decision logic, allowing users to understand why certain transactions were flagged or declined. This feature is part of Forter’s commitment to providing clear and transparent decision-making processes.
What is the Forter Trust Platform and how does it work?
The Forter Trust Platform applies identity intelligence at every step of the digital commerce journey. It uses a first-party Identity Graph to identify and assess the trustworthiness of every interaction. This platform enables businesses to block more fraudsters and approve more legitimate transactions, all while providing a seamless customer experience. By being part of Forter’s network, businesses can benefit from the collective intelligence of over 200,000 other businesses.
How does Forter differ from rules-based fraud prevention systems?
Forter uses a hybrid AI approach that combines machine learning and human intelligence, unlike rules-based systems that rely on static workflows and scoring engines. This hybrid approach allows Forter to dynamically stay ahead of sophisticated fraud attacks, which rules-based systems often struggle to detect. Forter’s method reduces the burden of creating and maintaining rules and provides more accurate and immediate decisions.
What kind of support and integration does Forter offer?
Forter has achieved AWS Retail Competency, which allows it to provide enterprise-grade identity intelligence and fraud prevention capabilities to AWS retail and Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG) customers. It is also listed on the AWS Marketplace and recognized as an Advanced Technology and ISV Accelerate Partner. Additionally, Forter has integrated with Ping Identity’s PingOne DaVinci to ensure verified users have a frictionless experience while maintaining security.
How fast does Forter make decisions on transactions?
Forter delivers 99% of its decisions in under 400 milliseconds, enabling businesses to offer seamless and fast omni-channel experiences without introducing risk.
What kind of data does Forter collect and analyze?
Forter collects and analyzes data from various sources, including external and internal sources related to fake accounts, suspicious purchasing sources, and characteristics of common fraud committers. It also tracks geographic locations and IP addresses of fraud suspects and identifies patterns in common occurrences of fraud.
How does Forter help in improving customer experience?
By accurately identifying and blocking fraudsters while approving legitimate transactions, Forter helps businesses offer faster, easier checkouts, simpler returns and refunds, and more valuable promotions. This leads to improved conversion rates, customer loyalty, retention, and higher customer lifetime value.