What is marketplace fraud?

Marketplace fraud is any deceptive activity targeting two-sided platforms, where one person opens many accounts or takes over accounts that are not theirs to abuse buyer-side and seller-side incentives. It spans three marketplace topologies and several abuse layers, each handled by a different tool. The three marketplace topologies: P2P marketplaces: Craigslist-style classifieds, peer-to-peer rental, gig economy; B2C marketplaces: Amazon-style retail, food delivery, ride sharing; B2B marketplaces: procurement, wholesale, service exchanges. Common marketplace risk examples: fake buyer accounts opened to claim welcome bonuses, first-purchase discounts, and referral credits; fake seller accounts created for ban evasion, account farms for review rings, and scam listings posted under fresh identities; multi-accounting and account farms running coordinated abuse across buyer and seller sides; account takeover of real buyer or seller logins; review fraud through coordinated multi-account ratings; fraudulent payments, chargebacks, and friendly-fraud disputes; counterfeit, misrepresented, or scam listings. These marketplace frauds split across layers, each needing its own tool: a payment-fraud platform for the transaction side, content-moderation and counterfeit-detection for the listing side, and identity-verification (KYC) for high-risk seller onboarding. ShieldLabs covers the account layer: it surfaces patterns indicating one person behind many accounts and logins from unrecognized devices, using persistent visitor and user identification that holds across sessions regardless of email, IP, or cleared cookies.

How do I prevent marketplace fraud?

Preventing marketplace fraud takes several layers, because no single tool covers all of it. You combine a tool per layer and let your own platform rules act on the signals each one returns. The layers, and what each one handles: Payment layer: a chargeback-prevention or payment-fraud platform screens transactions and card-not-present risk; Seller-onboarding layer: an identity-verification platform handles document checks, selfie liveness, business registration, and bank-ownership verification for high-risk sellers; Listing layer: content-moderation and counterfeit-detection tools screen images and descriptions; Network layer: a bot-management tool screens scrapers and automated traffic; Account layer: an identification tool surfaces patterns of one person operating many accounts and logins from unrecognized devices; Policy layer: your own rules (promo limits per user and device, posting limits for new sellers, delayed payouts, review-eligibility rules) act on those signals. Most operators run several of these layers in parallel, since marketplace security usually breaks down at the layer where there is no tool watching. ShieldLabs owns the account layer: it returns a risk score and the patterns behind multi-accounting and unrecognized-device logins, so your code can hold or step up before a welcome bonus is issued, a listing is published, or a payout is released.

How does ShieldLabs prevent marketplace fraud and abuse?

ShieldLabs installs as a single JavaScript snippet on your signup, login, or account page and returns identity, risk, and abuse signals on the first visit, so your own rules can act before money or trust is at stake. On each visit it returns: a 0-100 risk score with a signal breakdown; persistent visitor and user identification across sessions, cleared cookies, and rotated IP; anonymity signals: VPN, proxy, Tor, anti-detect browser, IP reputation; patterns in analytics, such as multi-accounting and account farms. When many signups trace back to one device, browser, or persistent identifier, the multi-accounting pattern fires automatically. ShieldLabs delivers the score and signals via API and Webhooks, so your code can flag, hold, or step up an account before a welcome bonus is issued, a listing is posted, or a payout is released.

Does ShieldLabs help with review fraud?

ShieldLabs surfaces the multi-accounting behind review fraud, not the review content itself. Most review fraud is one person running many accounts to leave fake positive ratings on their own listings, or a coordinated ring boosting a specific seller. How the two review-fraud layers split: Account layer (ShieldLabs): links reviewer accounts to the one device and persistent identifier behind them, and raises the risk score when the multi-accounting pattern fires; Content layer (a dedicated review-fraud or NLP moderation tool): analyzes review text, sentiment, image authenticity, and linguistic patterns; Together: ShieldLabs flags the fake-account network upstream, content tools flag fake-text patterns downstream. ShieldLabs raises the risk score before a flagged review publishes, so your code can hold, weight, or downrank it; it does not analyze review text, which is why you pair it with a content-moderation tool for the language side.

Does ShieldLabs work for any kind of marketplace?

Yes. The mechanism is the same wherever one person can profit by opening many accounts or getting into an account that is not theirs, so ShieldLabs surfaces patterns indicating multi-accounting, account farms, and account-takeover logins regardless of marketplace type. What that prevents per marketplace type: P2P marketplaces (classifieds, peer-to-peer rental, gig economy): fake listings posted under fresh accounts, ban evasion, and scam-buyer or scam-seller behavior; B2C marketplaces (retail, food delivery, ride sharing): welcome-bonus farming, first-order-discount abuse, and review manipulation; B2B marketplaces (procurement, wholesale, service exchanges): supplier and buyer impersonation, ban evasion, and coordinated bidding rings; Loyalty and rewards programs on top of any of these: points inflation and referral-credit fraud. ShieldLabs identifies the visitor and user behind the account at the signup and login layer; your rules then decide whether to allow, hold, or step up.

Is ShieldLabs marketplace fraud prevention software?

Yes. Marketplace fraud prevention software is a tool a marketplace integrates to run marketplace fraud detection automatically rather than reviewing accounts by hand, and ShieldLabs is one, focused on the account layer. What it is, and is not: Is: software you integrate as one JavaScript snippet on your signup, login, and account pages, returning a risk score and anonymity signals through a REST API and Webhooks, with patterns visible in analytics; Is not: a managed review service, a chargeback-guarantee product, an identity-verification platform, or a bot-management product; Pairs with: a payment-fraud platform for chargebacks, an identity-verification platform for seller KYC, and a bot-management tool for scraping. ShieldLabs identifies the visitor and user and surfaces anonymity signals and patterns across the fake-account, multi-accounting, account-farm, and account-takeover layer; your own rules decide whether to allow, hold, or step up.

How do I integrate ShieldLabs into a marketplace?

Integration takes about 5 minutes: add the JavaScript snippet to your signup, login, or account page, and pass an optional UserHID (a hashed account or user identifier from your own system) once a buyer or seller signs up or logs in. The four steps: Add the snippet to your signup, login, or account page; Pass an optional UserHID to tie the identity to your own account record; Read the risk score and anonymity signals via REST API and Webhooks for server-side flows; Review patterns in analytics. ShieldLabs includes a free tier of 5,000 one-time identifications with no credit card required, so you can test on real traffic before enabling production rules.

Will ShieldLabs block users automatically?

No. ShieldLabs blocks nothing automatically; it returns a risk score and a full signal breakdown, and your code decides what to do at each threshold you set. Example thresholds you can configure: A mid-range score flags a buyer for review, limits a referral payout, delays a seller's first posting, or weights down a review; A high score holds a signup or a high-risk login for manual review; A low score lets a legitimate buyer or seller through with no extra steps. ShieldLabs includes 5,000 free identifications so you can tune these thresholds on real traffic before enabling rules in production.

Marketplace Fraud Prevention

Stop marketplace fraud.
Keep trust and safety

Prevent fake buyer and seller accounts, multi-accounting, and review
fraud across P2P, B2C, and B2B marketplaces at signup and login

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Keep fake buyers and sellers off the platform

Stop one person from running many accounts to claim welcome bonuses, dodge bans, or post scam listings

Protect promo and referral budgets

Keep welcome offers, first-purchase discounts, and referral credits with real buyers

Keep ratings and reviews honest at the source

Surface the multi-accounting behind review rings before fake ratings reach real shoppers

Keep real users moving

Legitimate buyers and sellers sign up and log in without extra verification steps

How ShieldLabs prevents marketplace fraud and abuse

ShieldLabs recognizes the real visitor behind every anonymous session

Accurate Identification

Identify returning visitors and users across sessions, cleared cookies, incognito mode, and rotated IP, even when they sign up under fresh emails

Anonymity Signals

Detection of VPN, proxy, Tor, anti-detect browser, IP reputation and other anonymity signals on every visit, with up to 99% accuracy

Risk Score

A ready-to-use score reflecting the risk of each visit, with the weight of every signal behind it

Ready-Made Patterns

Detection of the hidden connections between accounts that may signal multi-accounting, account farms, account takeover, and more

Real-Time Analytics

See how much of your traffic is masked, with an overall quality score and a breakdown of the sources sending your visits

Prevent marketplace fraud and abuse in 5 minutes

Easily integrate into any signup, login, or account flow

1
Create your account
Sign up and get 5,000 free identifications.
2
Add the snippet
It identifies every visitor and returns their anonymity signals and a risk score
3
Check your traffic quality
See how much of your traffic is masked, with an overall traffic score
4
Use API & Webhooks
Apply the risk score and anonymity signals in your rules to stop fraud and abuse

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api.shieldlabs.ai/v1/visits/latest

{
  "request_id": "0c284695-cf0b-4755-8beb-0a2e9536595e",
  "visitor_id": "aa8c616a-8a25-4a5e-bee2-a9a08e5128a4",
  "device_id": "6a45967d-1371-9652-ba99-b01ea3992208",
  "user_hid": "u_9f2a41c7",
  "public_ip": { "ip": "62.197.149.124", "country": "United States" },
  "local_ip": { "ip": "45.83.91.7", "country": "United States" },
  "connection_type": "vpn",
  "os": "Windows",
  "browser": "Chrome",
  "device_type": "desktop",
  "risk_score": 85,
  "signals": [
    { "name": "antidetect_browser", "weight": 60 },
    { "name": "vpn", "weight": 15 },
    { "name": "timezone_mismatch", "weight": 10 }
  ]
}

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Stop marketplace fraud.Keep trust and safety

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