Reap launches Sentry, a service that spots card fraud as it happens

Reap, a fintech company, has launched Sentry, a managed service that watches card payments for fraud and tries to stop it as it happens. "Managed" means Reap's specialists run the fraud controls day to day. Clients do not just get software and a manual.

What Sentry does

Sentry monitors card approvals for emerging patterns and adjusts a client's controls as threats change. Reap says it also works with clients on investigating and containing attacks. Harris Leow, Reap's Head of Product, told SMEhorizon that good fraud work is a continuous job, not a single tool.

Reap also supports the follow-on work. That includes investigating alerts, processing chargebacks and reporting on a card program. A chargeback is when a payment is reversed after a customer disputes it.

Why fraud is hard to catch

Leow described fraud as faster, more connected and more organized. Attackers can combine tricks on people, malicious software, automated bots, stolen logins and networks of accounts used to move money. The risk now runs across the whole payment process.

Some attacks are hard to see. Leow said BIN attacks often look small, such as a single low-value attempt or a decline. The pattern shows up only when many attempts are viewed together. Reap says it looks across a client's whole portfolio of cards for that reason. It does not claim any single control can stop these attacks, only that it can spot them earlier and limit the damage.

The figures Reap cited point to a speed problem:

• 78% of fraud and risk professionals at financial firms said their teams were too slow for attackers.
• 66% of global fraud executives worried about controls that sit in separate silos.
• That concern rose to 72% among card issuers in Asia-Pacific and North America.

The cost of blocking good customers

Reap says good fraud performance is not about declining more payments. It says Sentry tailors controls to each program's cardholder profile and geographic footprint, then reviews and refines them over time.

The numbers support that. In a Datos Insights survey, 76% of executives named loss of customer trust as their top card-fraud concern. Another 69% pointed to high false-positive rates, meaning real purchases wrongly flagged. A business that issues or accepts cards should ask any provider how it balances stopping fraud against blocking real customers.

What is not known yet

The material does not say what Sentry costs, which clients use it or how widely it is available. It also gives no results showing how well it works. The claims come from Reap's own executive, so they are untested by outside parties.