Turn Fraud Prevention into a Growth Engine with Forter

Turning the fraud problem into a growth engine

When I say “fraud prevention,” I don’t mean the tired image of a team sitting in front of red flags, rejecting transactions in the hope of avoiding losses. That’s part of it, but it’s the small, silent cost of revenue leakage that often goes unnoticed. When handled properly, fraud prevention becomes less about cost-control and more about growth-acceleration.

At GTM Engine, we live an breath execution and acceleration. Finding the areas often overlooked is what that drives real change. That’s what attracted me to this solution and that's precisely the mindset shift that Forter promotes. Instead of treating fraud as a fire you want to stop, treat it as a lever you might pull. In straining to minimize loss, many merchants unwittingly block legitimate customers, create friction, undermine trust. This is what loses revenue.

What if you flipped that? What if your fraud strategy not only protected revenue but enabled it? That’s where the idea of fraud prevention as profit enabler comes in.

The hidden cost of “protection only”

Here’s the disconnect I see too often, a commerce team builds ever-tighter rules, approves fewer borderline transactions, declines more customers just to avoid risk. Meanwhile they don’t realise that the cost of false declines (rejecting good customers) may well dwarf the cost of actual fraud. Forter makes this explicit: “merchants can lose up to 75× more revenue to false declines than to fraud”.

What does that means in practice? You send away a customer who would have converted, potentially become a repeat buyer, maybe referred friends. You don’t just lose that order. Perhaps you lose trust, you disrupt their experience, or you weaken loyalty. All of which hits the top line. If we’re only measuring cost of fraud, we are missing half the ledger.

In a mobile-first, omni-channel world it’s not enough to block fraudsters; you must enable legitimate customers to transact seamlessly. According to Forter’s platform overview, their claim is average reductions of 72% in chargebacks and 46% in false declines.

In other words, a platform built not just to stop the bad, but to let the good in.

What sets the approach apart: identity, network effects, decision speed

Let’s dig into what enables that shift from “reject more” to “approve more” safely.

Identity-first thinking

Forter emphasises their “Identity Graph” which draws on over 1.8 billion known identities. The idea: you don’t simply evaluate each transaction in a vacuum; you evaluate the underlying actor, the behavioural history, the broader network context. When you know who you’re dealing with (or have a high-confidence sense), you can afford to approve more, decline less.

Network effect

This is not just about your single merchant data set. Forter talks about processing over $350 billion in gross merchandise value across 200,000+ businesses in the last year. Because you’re plugged into a network of merchants, you gain visibility into emerging fraud patterns, you benefit from scale, you reduce individual risk. That network allows you to calibrate your “good customer” approvals more aggressively without increasing risk.

Real-time decision engine

Speed matters. The platform claims 99% of decisions in under 400 milliseconds. That matters because if the customer experiences friction (delays, manual review, rejects), you lose conversion. Approve more in real-time, reject fewer good customers, and you retain momentum.

From cost-center to revenue machine

Once you adopt this posture, you start seeing fraud prevention not as a shield but as a contributor to growth.

Higher approval rates

With greater confidence you approve more legitimate transactions. More orders, more revenue. The decision engine and identity graph enable this.

Lower false declines

By reducing declines of legitimate customers you stop losing the revenue that never showed up. You retain conversion, you protect goodwill, you boost lifetime value.

Better customer experience

When customers don’t get erroneously declined, when checkout is smooth, when loyalty programmes and promotions aren’t mis-interpreted as abuse, you build trust. Forter explicitly notes, “When companies trust the identity they are interacting with … they’re able to confidently offer every good customer a great experience … faster, easier checkout … more valuable promotions … improved conversion.”

Reduced chargebacks and cost

Yes you still get the upside of fraud prevention like lower chargebacks and fewer losses. According to Forter, reduction in chargebacks of ~72% on average. That cost-saving compound the growth side.

Scalability and geographic reach

The platform claims it enables merchants to “enter new markets, accept new payment methods, support omnichannel experiences without increasing fraud” thanks to their coverage. That means growth without linear inflation of risk-management overhead.

What it takes to make the shift

Okay, the theory sounds good. But making fraud prevention into a growth engine isn’t automatic. Here are the practical imperatives.

Leadership mindset

You need senior execs who are willing to treat fraud not just as risk but as growth. The talking-point shifts, “How many good orders are we losing to our fraud rules?” instead of solely “How much fraud did we stop?” The payout is in margin and conversion, not just cost saved.

Invest in the right technology

An identity-network platform like Forter can help, but you still need to pick a partner who delivers real performance. Forter emphasises their scale, the proprietary data set, their guarantee model.

Align data, operations, UX

You cannot isolate the fraud team from checkout, from UX, from payments. If fraud rules block a new payment method or delay a checkout flow you degrade experience. The platform needs to integrate across these touchpoints. Forter’s unified platform approach addresses that ... “Instead of managing a myriad of point solutions, rule sets, and data sources, our users can see a complete picture of the consumer with a single login.”

Calibrate policy and review

The “approve more” mentality doesn’t mean “let everything through.” It means finely tuned policies, ongoing feedback loops, analytics on declines vs approvals, and strategic manual review only where needed. Forter also has an “Abuse Prevention” vertical that handles coupon abuse, reseller/reshipper issues, return fraud etc.

Measure the right metrics

Track not only fraud losses but false decline rates, approval uplift, conversion impact, lifetime value uplift. Metrics like “good orders lost because of fraud rules” become as important as “chargebacks prevented”.

A cautionary word (because I like being real)

Treating fraud prevention as growth doesn’t mean ignoring risk. You still must block bad actors, maintain regulatory compliance, guard your brand and margins. The risk is that in pushing “approve more”, you might inadvertently open holes if your models or data are weak.

Forter acknowledges this. They promise automation but still recognise an expert oversight and hybrid-AI model.

Technology is the enabler but not the complete answer. Culture matters. Policies matter. You need to maintain vigilance.

Why now is the moment

Ecommerce is accelerating. Payment methods are proliferating. Fraud tactics are evolving. Things like bots, identity theft, loyalty abuse, reseller/reshipper abuse. Forter’s blog highlights that the fraud and payment ecosystem is “increasingly complex and in constant motion.”

In that environment, a rigid “block more” strategy falls behind. A dynamic “approve more safely” strategy becomes competitive advantage. If you can offer fast, frictionless checkout and still reduce risk, you win.

Final word

If I had to sum it up in one line, the most profitable fraud strategy is the one that treats good customers as the asset rather than just the intrusion.

With Forter you reduce friction, you approve more of the right customers, you increase conversion, you build loyalty, and you slash cost. That’s how a fraud prevention solution becomes a profit engine.

So here’s my open challenge to you, when was the last time your fraud team talked about growth instead of loss? If you can’t remember, maybe it’s time for a new framework.