Article

Just Ask Ian: Don’t let scammers skew your marketing data

Ryan Johnson
Marketer @ SegMetrics
Banner image: Which channels bring in the most scammers? video

Find the credit card scammers coming through your channels

In this week’s Just Ask Ian video, we explore how scammers skew your marketing data and what to do about it. Fraudulent purchases are a triple-problem — they drive refunds, they waste your time and they distort key business insights.

With SegMetrics, you can track down scammers, refine your targeting, and get a clearer understanding of what is and isn’t working in your marketing.

Watch the video to learn:

  • How credit card fraud skews your analytics and affects your profitability
  • The impact of fraudulent purchases on time, revenue, and targeting
  • How to use SegMetrics’ Orders report to identify suspicious transactions
  • Techniques to refine your targeting and reduce refund rates
  • Proactive measures for detecting high-risk channels and ads

Video: “CATCH Credit Card Scammers with this Simple Analytics Trick!”

Video Transcript

Ever wondered which of your channels is bringing in the most scammers?

Credit card fraud isn’t just a drain on your team’s time—it can skew your analytics and give you an inaccurate view of what is and isn’t working in your business.

Today, let’s shed some light on credit card scammers and see how SegMetrics can help you reveal the channels bringing in those pesky fraudsters.

Refund rates can make or break your profitability. This becomes trickier when your refunds are inflated by fake sales and scams. It’s like having a leaky bucket. No matter how much water you pour in, some of it is just running out of the bottom.

And it’s not just about the money. Fraudulent purchases waste your time, erode your reputation, degrade your targeting, and distract you from more important projects—most importantly, getting more real paying customers.

Identifying the sources of these fraudulent sales is like finding the hole in your bucket. Once you do, you can patch it up, stop the leak, and start regaining lost revenue. That’s why it’s essential to figure out which ads and channels are bringing in these undesired customers. You can then refine your targeting to filter them out, ultimately reducing your refund rates and improving your campaign performance to give you a clear view of what’s actually driving your business growth.

Because SegMetrics gives you a cross-platform, single source of truth for your marketing — and because SegMetrics tracks all sales back to real names with real email addresses — you can easily separate the scammers from your real customers.

Let’s start by opening SegMetrics and navigating to the Orders report, where we’ll identify common red flags that signal potential credit card fraud.

A quick way to filter out scammers is by examining their email addresses. While fraudsters have become more sophisticated, many still rely on bots to infiltrate your lists.

By scanning your customer email list, you can often spot addresses that appear suspicious, fake, or spammy in nature.

Take this email, for example. It looks a bit off. Let’s click on it to dive into the customer profile and examine their journey.

A customer’s interaction can reveal whether they’re legitimate or a potential scammer. Look for signs of low engagement, such as minimal page views, few tags or list associations, and a general lack of interaction with your brand. These indicators suggest limited interest beyond making a fraudulent purchase.

Now, compare that to a legitimate customer. Here, we see multiple page views, engagement with paid ads, and various tag applications — clear signs of ongoing interactions with your content leading up to a valid purchase.

Most fraudulent purchases eventually result in chargebacks, failed payments, or refunds. To generate a list of customers that could exhibit these red flags, apply a filter at the top of the report.

Select the Purchase Product filter, choose Order Status, and select Failed Payment and Refunded as the criteria. Confirm and apply the filter. This will refine the report to show only customers whose transactions have been refunded or remained unpaid. From here, you can investigate further and take action to protect your business from fraud.

Some of you might be wondering, “Can we detect fake sales before they occur?”

Unfortunately, it’s challenging to identify bogus customers upfront. However, by monitoring your customer behavior and ad performance, you can identify trends and red flags indicating potential fraud.

Another common question we get is: “Can all channels and ads be equally susceptible?”

The truth is, some channels attract more scammers based on their targeting options and audience demographics. That’s why it’s important to identify which channels are bringing in these fraudsters, so you can start being more proactive in preventing this behavior.

Next Steps

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Ryan Johnson

Marketer @ SegMetrics

Ryan Johnson is a content strategist and product marketing manager with over 15 years experience bringing brands and products to life with integrated editorial and sales collateral, value-based messaging, and GTM strategies.


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