Transaction Domain Risk Scoring via Referrer Tracing
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Solution Overview
Problem
Payment transaction systems face challenges in accurately assessing risk due to merchants using intermediate proxy domains to obscure their identities, making it difficult to identify and prevent transactions that violate acceptable use policies.
Innovation Solution
The system evaluates transactions by utilizing real-time transaction details, including URL referrer information and pre-transaction registration information, to determine the set of domains involved and assess risk, allowing for more accurate identification of suspicious transactions and prevention of policy violations.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Object-affected harmful factors
If merchants use intermediate proxy domains to obscure their identities, then merchant identity protection is improved, but transaction risk assessment accuracy deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The system introduces multiple domain identifiers (referring domain, transaction domain, registered domain) as intermediaries to trace the transaction flow. These domains act as mediators that reveal the true transaction path while allowing merchants to use proxy domains for identity protection. The referring domain captures the origin, the transaction domain captures the proxy, and the registered domain captures the actual merchant, creating a layered identification system.
Solution Approach 2:
The system adds temporal and hierarchical dimensions to domain analysis by evaluating domains at different stages of the transaction flow (referring stage, transaction stage, registration stage). This multi-dimensional approach allows the system to assess risk based on the entire domain hierarchy rather than a single domain, maintaining accuracy while allowing identity obfuscation.
2Measurement precision
If the system evaluates multiple domains for each transaction, then risk assessment accuracy is improved, but system complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system segments domain evaluation into three distinct components: referring domain evaluation (capturing the origin), transaction domain evaluation (capturing the proxy), and registered domain evaluation (capturing the actual merchant). Each segment is evaluated independently using the same risk criteria, then combined to form the overall risk assessment. This segmentation reduces complexity by making the evaluation process modular and systematic.
Solution Approach 2:
The system uses a universal risk evaluation framework that applies to all domains regardless of their role in the transaction. The same risk criteria and scoring mechanism are used for referring domains, transaction domains, and registered domains, making the system multi-functional and reducing complexity through consistency rather than requiring separate evaluation systems for each domain type.
3Measurement precision
If the system captures real-time URL referrer information, then domain identification accuracy is improved, but data processing requirements increase
Solution Approach 1:
The system extracts only the critical domain identifier from the URL referrer information, rather than processing the entire URL. By focusing on extracting and evaluating just the domain portion (e.g., example.com from https://example.com/page), the system achieves accurate domain identification while minimizing data processing requirements and reducing the quantity of data that must be handled.
Data Source
AI summary
Techniques are disclosed relating to determining a risk score for domains associated with a transaction. In some embodiments, a transaction computer system receives transaction details for a transaction between a consumer and a merchant, where the transaction details are received from the merchant real-time with the transaction and include a set of transaction URLs for subsequent use in the transaction. The computer system may receive, from a browser of the consumer that is used to initiate the transaction, URL referrer information real-time with the transaction, where the URL referrer information indicates a referring web page to the transaction computer system. The computer system may determine, using the set of transaction URLs and the URL referrer information, a set of domains for the transaction and then determine a risk score for the set of domains. The computer system may determine, based on the risk score, whether to allow the transaction.