Rule and Delta Counters

Rule Counters allow customers to track or mark transactions with custom counters for data gathering and order status changes, or to stop false positives or retrieve third-party service data. While the set-up process for Rule Counters is simple, it can be used to complete complex fraud and business objectives without the need for development. This guide illustrates how to set up and manage Rules Counters and provide examples of how they can be used.

Set Up a Rule Counter

Adding a Rule Counter to existing or new rules is simple. Just expand the “Rule Actions” drop down and select “Rule Counter.” Next define the counter (“Review Counter” in the example below). This will be the name of the counter for use in other rules or tracking the counter in Datamart. Next define the “Delta Value” or how much the value or “weight” will increment when the rules trigger. This allows for different rules to have different “weights.” Conditions or rules with riskier behavior can be weighted more heavily than those with less risky rules or conditions.

Gather Data: In its simplest form rule counters can be used to track transactions across multiple rules to manage and report on rule efficiency, business intelligence, and fraud.

Example: Add a "Tracking" Counter to a group of rules to see how often more than one of the rules trigger or what the overall overlap of those rules are.

Use Groups of Rules to Automatically Change an Order's Status: Rule Counters can be used to have a group of rules change the status of a transaction without having any one individual rule change the status of the transaction.

Example: Add a "Review Counter" to each review rule, then if a transaction triggers more than 3 review rules, automatically decline the transaction. The same can be done with a group of No Change rules that when triggered together automatically mark the transaction for review.

Stop False Positives: Rule Counters can be used to exclude complex but important criteria from existing rules.

Example: Exclude Puerto Rican Customers using US cards from the “Billing Address Country is not the Payment Country” rule using another rule to create a "PR_US" counter where the Billing Address is Puerto Rico and the Payment Country is the United States. Then adding a "PR_US" counter equal to 0 to the “Billing Address Country is not the Payment Country.”

Retrieve Third Party Callouts: Rule Counters can be used to automatically retrieve Third Party Callouts if predefined conditions are met in a group of rules.

Example: Automatically retrieve Ekata (formerly Whitepages Pro - WPP) transactions marked for review that triggered more than 2 review rules without triggering any decline rules by adding a "Review" Counter to all review rules and a "Decline" Counter to all decline rules. Then create a rule for which the Review Counter is greater than 1 and Decline Counter is 0.