July 23, 2025

Repeat Offenders Beware: Introducing Socure’s New Dispute Abuse Risk Score

At first, it looked like a routine fraud claim.

A customer said they didn’t recognize a charge on their debit card. The bank followed Regulation E protocol — provisionally credited the funds and added it to their investigation queue. No red flags. The identity checked out, and the account was barely a month old with no other claims on file.

But a few weeks later, the same consumer files another knowingly-false claim — different bank, different account, same story. Then it happened again, when they pretended to never receive their package from an online retailer. And again, when they placed and lost a bet online that they couldn’t actually afford to lose. You see where this is going…

By the time anyone connected the dots, it was too late. The fraudster had hit fifteen different institutions with false claims, walking away with thousands of dollars in cash and merchandise.

Dispute abuse isn’t a niche issue — it’s a massive, cross-industry problem costing billions. From banks and fintechs to gig platforms, marketplaces, and eCommerce, bad actors are exploiting gaps in siloed fraud defenses to file illegitimate claims, receive provisional credits or refunds, and move on to their next target. These are not one-off opportunists. They’re repeat abusers who are gaming the system, often undetected.

Until now.

Stop Serial Abusers With a Score That Sees It All

That’s why Socure developed a Dispute Abuse Score; the first purpose-built risk score to predict whether a real identity is likely to abuse dispute systems for financial gain, based on their historical patterns across the digital economy. This powerful new signal is now delivered as part of our Sigma First-Party Fraud Solution.

We started by asking a simple but powerful question: Is it possible to assess when a real identity is likely to abuse the system—before they even make a claim?

Spoiler alert: the answer is yes.

Our data science team compiled hundreds of predictive signals from across Socure’s vast First-Party Fraud Consortium — including velocity indicators, digital intelligence, and identity graph features. We then trained the model to identify patterns consistent with serial abuse across institutions, platforms, and transaction types.

The result is a precise, real-time risk score that empowers fraud and risk teams to identify repeat abusers who move from platform to platform, racking up losses, overwhelming investigation queues, and exploiting the processes meant to protect legitimate users.

This capability is only possible because of Socure’s First-Party Fraud Consortium. Launched in October 2023, this first-of-its-kind cross-industry consortium was created to bring companies together to tackle the complex, widespread issue of first-party fraud. By pooling data and insights, members would gain the visibility needed to detect and prevent fraud before it takes hold.

Today, the consortium represents 20+ billion transactions, 350+ million active accounts, and an ever-growing pool of confirmed dispute abuse events fueling the model.

A Cross-Industry Effort With Real-World Value

Dispute abuse isn’t limited to one industry or use case — it’s everywhere. And fighting it in isolation has proven ineffective. That’s why Socure brought together leaders across the digital economy to form a unified front against first-party fraud.

The cost of inaction is staggering. U.S. financial institutions alone lose $28 billion annually to Reg E abuse. That number climbs even higher when you include refund or return policy abuse across other sectors.

The Dispute Abuse Score gives organizations a way to stop repeat abusers from moving undetected between platforms. By surfacing high-risk activity from the outset, teams can make smarter onboarding decisions and reduce downstream loss, operational strain, and regulatory exposure.

And the value extends far beyond fraud prevention. It’s about preserving trust, accelerating decisions, and providing a seamless experience for good customers

This Is Just the Beginning

The launch of the Dispute Abuse Score marks a pivotal expansion of Socure’s mission to help organizations detect and stop first-party fraud.

As part of the Sigma First-Party Fraud module, this new score works alongside two other powerful components:

• The Identity Manipulation Score, which predicts whether a real identity has been altered to evade detection
• A rich library of deterministic signals and identity insights—including dispute histories, payment denials, and account closures seen across institutions and verticals

Together, these capabilities give fraud and risk teams a comprehensive understanding of who is coming through their digital front door, payment portal, or dispute process — and how they’re likely to behave.

Whether you’re mitigating abuse at account opening, investigating a high-risk transaction, or reviewing a suspicious dispute, Sigma First-Party Fraud gives you the intelligence to take action — fast, confidently, and with context.

This is what smarter, cross-industry fraud prevention looks like. And we’re just getting started.

Book a demo now to see Sigma First-Party Fraud in action.

Emma Griffin

Emma Griffin is a Product Marketing Lead at Socure, where she owns go-to-market strategy for fraud and risk intelligence solutions. With over a decade of marketing experience, she has built a career on turning complex ideas into clear narratives that resonate with buyers. Before tech, Emma performed as a professional Irish dancer on Broadway and toured internationally with Michael Flatley's Lord of the Dance.