Understanding Online Marketplaces
An online marketplace is a virtual hub where buyers and sellers come together to exchange goods, services, or even experiences. Think of it as the digital equivalent of a bustling town square, except instead of roaming past stalls, you click through options on platforms like eBay, Amazon, or Airbnb. Some marketplaces offer their own goods alongside third-party items, while others focus solely on connecting independent merchants with interested customers. Whether you’re shopping for vintage sneakers or booking a pet-sitter, these platforms streamline transactions and expand access to goods and services.

Spot Abuse of Giveaways, Referrals, and Promotions
Giveaways, referral credits, and marketplace promotions are designed to attract new customers and reward loyalty, but they can also become magnets for fraudsters looking for a quick win. Bad actors may exploit these programs by:

Creating multiple fake accounts to claim the same promo codes multiple times
Using stolen or manipulated coupons to illegitimately access referral bonuses
Spreading promotional codes on public forums or social media, far beyond their intended audience
Hacking user accounts to steal rewards or promotional credits from legitimate customers

These tactics don’t just chip away at promotional budgets; they can lead to distorted campaign results, inventory loss, and, perhaps most damaging, a breakdown in customer trust when legitimate shoppers see offers or rewards disappearing mysteriously. Catching these behaviors early is key to keeping promotional incentives both fair and effective.

Marketplaces face a wide range of fraud threats, including:

• Seller onboarding fraud (fake identities, drop-shipping scams)
• Buyer-side abuse (card testing, promo abuse, refund fraud)
• Account Takeover (ATO)
• Fake reviews and reputation manipulation
• Social engineering and collusion fraud

The Darwinium platform analyzes every user journey across both buyer and seller sides, detecting suspicious patterns in real time. We combine device fingerprinting, behavioral biometrics, and historical interactions to block bad actors without disrupting good ones.

Our system continuously learns normal behavior across your platform, like browsing habits, listing patterns, transaction timing, and device usage. Using risk-adaptive decisioning, we allow low-risk users to transact seamlessly, while flagging or challenging anomalies (e.g., multiple listings from a fresh IP, unusual buyer refund velocity). This reduces false positives and boosts conversion and trust.

We analyze traffic behaviors from the moment a user lands on your site, while browsing and during account creation to detect:

• Automated account creations, from fraud farms or bots
• Unusual copy/paste anomalies indicating credential stuffing
• Mismatches in identity data that might point to the use of stolen / synthetic identity use

Combined with optional ID verification integrations, we help ensure that only legitimate sellers gain access to your marketplace.

Yes. Our platform persistently links behaviors and devices across accounts, even if users switch identities or clear cookies. We detect:

• Promo code abuse
• Loyalty gaming
• Circumvention of suspension via new accounts
• Coordinated fraud rings using similar behavioral signatures

We surface these connections in real time, enabling preemptive actions.

Our platform maintains a complete behavioral and transactional audit trail for every interaction. This helps:

• Strengthen your evidence in chargeback disputes
• Highlight abusive patterns from repeat offenders
• Inform automated or manual decision workflows in your customer service tools

You can even customize policy actions based on fraud history, purchase amount, or seller trust scores.

Yes. Darwinium has been designed to work seamlessly with:

• Seller onboarding flows
• Listing or content moderation queues
• Transaction checkout pages
• Messaging systems and account actions
• Internal case management platforms