Anti-fraud system
for e-commerce users

French startup helps customers avoid scams while delivering a seamless online shopping experience.

Business context

Today, e-commerce is grappling with an influx of scammers posing as online stores. While the popularity of online shopping has skyrocketed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, fraudsters disguised as e-stores are collecting more and more credit card information from unsuspecting customers.

About the client

In the summer of 2020, several French entrepreneurs decided to settle the issue of e-commerce scams, like one-day e-shops, once and for all. Their idea was to launch a browser extension that could recognize fraudulent websites and notify the buyer in time. Startup founders reached Unicsoft, since they were looking for talented AI engineers and data scientists to help them bring the idea into reality.

Solution

The extension helps buyers detect e-commerce scams and locate higher quality goods at a more competitive price point

How it works

The extension works in the background and is able to recognize when a user finds a product on an e-commerce site or page of an online store. Next, the extension analyzes the website's reputation using unique algorithms and determines a user trust ranking. As a result, the user sees the ranking marked with one of three colors: red, orange, or green.

01
System analyzes user’s URL and website content
02
Our algorithm checks if we can trust the website
03
System shows user the security flag
Showing user the list of trusted websites to make safe purchases
Offering user earn bonus points if switching to some of trusted websites list

Key highlights:

The extension is available for every popular browser, including Chrome, Safari, Firefox, Edge, and Opera.

The extension provides a detailed outline of reasons for why the website received this rating.

https://unicsoft.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/block5-image-1-1.png

One of the significant bonuses is a feature that recommends similar products in stores with a higher reputation, better pricing, and service. The client should be able to take advantage of the recommendations instantly.

https://unicsoft.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/Screen-1.png

Our challenges

Tightest deadlines.

The product working at full capacity was set to hit production before Black Friday (26th of November) 2020. The client initially reached out to Unicsoft in August 2020.

The client didn't have a significant technical base.

Since the customer had only a business background, Unicsoft managed all the prototyping, decomposition, and development work. The client chose Unicsoft because of their confidence in Unicsoft’s ability to provide the necessary engineering, analytical resources, and sufficient expertise.

Critical performance requirements coupled with sophisticated data analysis algorithms.

End users shouldn’t have to wait long for the results of the web page analysis. The extension had to generate results in seconds. But achieving the required speed was not a trivial task for all the complexity and variety of calculations carried out under the hood.

Multiple proofs of concept were required.

Since the customers had a very broad view of the possible functionality, the team had to develop and quickly test several feature concepts. These included AI-powered image recognition (for analyzing product images and matching them with other e-commerce platforms) and advanced mobile traffic analytics.

The project management

Project stages

During three months of development, the product passed the following stages:

01
Discovery
Anti-fraud system for e-commerce users
02
Development
Anti-fraud system for e-commerce users
03
Testing
Anti-fraud system for e-commerce users
04
User acceptance testing
Anti-fraud system for e-commerce users
05
Release
Anti-fraud system for e-commerce users

Team composition

To work on the product, Unicsoft put together a dedicated team of 12 people.
It included:

Project manager
Designer
Mobile tech lead
2 Backend developers
DevOps manager
AI engineer
2 Front-end developers
2 QAs
Data scientist

Product management
& communication

Since Unicsoft started with a high-level product idea, the team had to work on both the development and business levels.

To develop the concept for future solution, business analysts researched all the possible related solutions and competition, and worked on defining potential customer portraits. The project manager set the tasks, and the core team deconstructed them for development.

Technology Stack

PostgreSQL
Docker
Angular
Redis
MongoDB
Kubernetes
node.js
Google cloud

The result

After six months in production, the most significant result was the successful and timely release of the extension:

  • completed in a relatively short amount of time
  • was to be presented to journalists and a wide range of users
  • with full responsibility for maintaining the customer’s reputation through presenting high-quality working product

The appreciation of business owners during the development phase was aimed at things such as:

Unicsoft's strong technical expertise.
Unicsoft's strong technical expertise.
The ability to quickly expand the team when required.
The ability to quickly expand the team when required.
Close cooperation was no different from working with an in-house production team.
Close cooperation was no different from working with an in-house production team.
Swift development terms and occasional overtime when needed.
Swift development terms and occasional overtime when needed.
The extension code and its security measures passed an independent third-party audit that validated the product’s higher quality.
The extension code and its security measures passed an independent third-party audit that validated the product’s higher quality.

Today, the client is still improving and updating the product in cooperation with Unicsoft. The extension app is prepared for launch on the international market. Unicsoft wishes its client considerable success and is ready to share more details in the near future.

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