Fraud Tools Aren’t Just a Cost, They’re Your Next Growth Driver

Fraud prevention is often treated like duct tape on a leaking pipe: patch up the holes, hope for the best, and try not to flood the boat. It’s a necessary cost. A defensive play. A “must-have” that, let’s be honest, rarely gets the strategic love it deserves.

But what if we’ve been looking at it all wrong?

Increasingly, in conversations with forward-thinking fraud leaders, there’s a growing recognition: the right fraud tool isn’t just a shield; it’s a growth engine.

Let me explain.

The False Tradeoff: More Fraud vs. More Business

The conventional wisdom goes something like this: if you want less fraud, you accept more friction. More declines. More case reviews. If you want more business, you let more transactions through and accept higher risk. It’s a binary choice.

But it’s not. Or rather, it doesn’t have to be.

If you’re choosing a fraud platform today, you should be demanding one thing above all else: the ability to stop fraud and enable growth. The best tools don’t just block bad actors; they pave a smoother path for good customers.

Here’s what that looks like in practice.

Declines Are Bleeding You Dry

Let’s take a common scenario in the card space.

Fraud systems sometimes cast too wide a net in the name of safety, flagging and declining legitimate transactions that simply look risky. While this conservative approach may reduce fraud losses, it can quietly erode growth and customer trust.

Every unnecessary decline represents a potential lost customer and missed revenue opportunity. Even a small percentage of false positives, at scale, can translate into significant financial impact.

For example, improving your approval rate by just 1% could translate into hundreds, thousands, or even millions of dollars in additional revenue over the course of a year, depending on your transaction volume.

And that’s not counting the long-term effects. Declines don’t just hurt in the moment. They cause customer frustration, abandonment, and churn. If I get declined at checkout, I’m not writing an email to my bank. I’m reaching for a different card app or bank.

And I’m not coming back.

The Real KPIs You’re Probably Ignoring

Most fraud teams are KPI’d on loss prevention: how much fraud was stopped, how many chargebacks were avoided. And those are important. Some go a bit deeper, tracking customer acquisition and attrition. 

But if you want to make a business case for investing in better tools especially to product, CX, or revenue teams, you need to speak their language. And increasingly, that language is not just about savings. It’s about the customer.

That means broadening your KPI set to include both commercial and customer-centric metrics, such as:

• Cost per false positive
• Cost per abandoned transaction
• Interchange revenue lost to unnecessary declines
• Customer churn due to poor experience
• Speed to onboarding for new customers
• Customer contact rate due to fraud issues
• Volume of customer complaints related to fraud or friction
• Repeat interventions for the same customer
• Net Promoter Score (NPS) impact from fraud decisions

Every unnecessary review or decline adds operational cost. But it also chips away at customer trust. Likewise, every seamless interaction adds value. Not just to the bottom line, but to the overall brand experience.

Modern fraud prevention should be measured not only by what it stops, but by how it makes customers feel.

Bridging the Gap: Fraud and Product, Not Fraud vs. Product

Too often, fraud and product teams operate in silos with separate KPIs, separate budgets, and separate definitions of success. One is trying to prevent loss. The other is trying to drive growth.

But what if they shared a budget? Or at least made decisions together?

If I, as Head of Fraud, select a modern, intelligent fraud platform that reduces friction, lowers false positives, and unlocks more revenue, it’s not just a win for me. It’s a win for Product. And for onboarding and revenue. Truth be told, it’s a win for the whole organization and for the customer.

Understanding that a fraud tool can unlock revenue makes the conversation less about compliance and more about collaboration. Let’s not look just at the stick, why not look at the carrot?

A Better Tool Creates a Better Bank

Let’s stop thinking of fraud tools as a line item on the cost sheet.

A better fraud platform can:

• Onboard customers faster
• Enable new products and markets with less risk
• Improve customer satisfaction
• Reduce internal costs (e.g., fewer case reviews, chargebacks, or manual rules management)
• Increase lifetime value and retention

Done right, it’s not just about stopping fraud. It’s about fueling the business.

One Last Point: Easy ≠ Insecure

We prize seamlessness. One-click checkouts. Instant payments. But we shouldn’t confuse convenience with carelessness.

There’s a difference between declining a transaction and asking for authentication. In Europe, step-up authentication (like SMS or push notification prompts) is common and often even comforting. It signals that the bank is paying attention.

The best platforms strike that balance: friction when it matters, flow when it doesn’t.

The Bottom Line

The fraud tools of the future won’t live in the basement of the org chart. They’ll sit at the intersection of security, revenue, and experience.

So if you’re a fraud leader evaluating new platforms, ask yourself:

• Can this tool reduce false positives without increasing fraud?
• Can it enable faster onboarding and product rollout?
• Can it help me make a case to share a budget with my business partners?
• Can it turn our fraud team into a growth partner, not just a cost center?

If the answer is yes, you’re not just buying a tool. You’re building a better business.

Additional Fraud Tools Resources

• Blog: What Is Bot Detection: Tools, Techniques & Ways to Prevent Against Bot Attacks
• Webinar: Roadmap to Actionable Intelligence Sharing
• POV: Trust in a Trustless Age
• Solution: Account Takeover Fraud Solution