Key Details
- AtData won the 2025 Sammy – Sales & Marketing Technology Award, in the tech category “Email Market Master”, for its innovation in email‑address intelligence that unites identity, marketing and fraud prevention. (PR Newswire)
- The award citation emphasises how AtData uses the email address not simply for marketing communications, but as a persistent, privacy‑safe identifier to drive growth, trust, engagement and fraud prevention. (Epicos)
- In addition, AtData has launched (September 2025) new Email Identity Intelligence Licensing Solutions designed to power AI, identity graphs, ML models and fraud prevention strategies via large scale email datasets. (AtData)
- AtData also flagged a rising trend of “hyper‑disposable domains” used in fraud – nearly half of high‑risk domains were extremely short‑lived, which AtData’s intelligence models seek to detect. (PR Newswire)
Case Study: AtData’s Approach & Impact
Background & Challenge
- Organisations increasingly need to identify who is behind an email address, not just send communications to it. Fraud, synthetic identities, account takeovers and fake sign‑ups challenge digital trust.
- Traditional email verification checks (syntax, deliverability) are insufficient; fraudsters use disposable domains, multiple aliases, and email addresses as key entry vectors into referrer programmes, promotions, subscription abuse.
- Marketing teams, identity teams and fraud teams often operate in silos – reducing effectiveness of email intelligence across lifecycle.
AtData’s Solution
- AtData compiles a 20+‑year historical dataset of email + postal linkages, plus active signals (billions of monthly activity) to power email intelligence. (AtData)
- They have transformed email from a static identifier into a dynamic intelligence layer: not only who the email belongs to, but how active it is, risk profile, behavioural signals, domain freshness, lifetime history. (PR Newswire)
- They license their datasets (Email Identity File, Alternate Email File, Email Open Score Intelligence) so that customers (marketers, identity/fraud teams) can integrate at scale into AI/ML/identity graphs. (AtData)
- They partner with fraud/identity‑platform vendors (for example, a strategic partnership with Dodgeball) to embed AtData’s email intelligence into orchestration and journey tools. (Epicos)
Impact
- The award from the Business Intelligence Group recognises measurable business‑outcome alignment: using email intelligence to both drive marketing performance and reduce fraud risk. (PR Newswire)
- Their dataset and signals allow organisations to reduce fake account creation, detect malicious users behind email addresses, mitigate promotion‑abuse or account takeover risk. (AtData)
- By licensing large email‑identity datasets, organisations can improve their identity resolution, unify marketing and fraud functions, and support AI/ML models with higher‑quality input data.
Commentary & Strategic Insights
Why the recognition matters:
- The blurring of lines between marketing data, identity resolution and fraud prevention means email intelligence is now strategic — not just a tactical database.
- AtData’s recognition signals the growing market value of email as an identity asset rather than just a communication channel.
- Organisations that can harness email‑based intelligence effectively may gain competitive advantage: better targeting, higher conversion, lower fraud/chargeback risk, improved trust.
Key strengths:
- Large scale and depth of data (20+ years + billions of monthly signals).
- Holistic business model: appeals to marketers (engagement) and fraud/identity teams (risk).
- Clear articulation of email as a persistent identifier and intelligence layer.
- Strong ecosystem partnerships to amplify impact.
What to watch / challenges:
- Privacy & compliance risk: Using email intelligence for identity/fraud means data governance, consent, transparency must be robust. Companies must ensure compliance (GDPR, CCPA) when linking and acting on email intelligence.
- Signal accuracy & bias: Any intelligence model must ensure it works fairly across email domains, regions, demographics and doesn’t unfairly penalise legitimate users.
- Integration & adoption: The value depends on how well organisations integrate AtData’s intelligence into workflows (marketing, verification, fraud decisioning). Technology alone is necessary but not sufficient.
- Differentiation & commoditisation: As more players focus on email/fraud intelligence, maintaining differentiation and data exclusivity will be important for continued value.
Best‑practice take‑aways for organisations:
- Treat email addresses as persistent identity tokens, not just communication endpoints — invest accordingly.
- Build cross‑functional alignment between marketing, identity/security and fraud teams so email intelligence is shared and leveraged broadly.
- Use high‑quality data inputs (like AtData’s) when deploying AI/ML models — “garbage in, garbage out” applies strongly in fraud/identity contexts.
- Monitor emerging threats (e.g., hyper‑disposable domains) that exploit traditional age/verification gaps and ensure your signal set catches them.
- Have clear metrics: e.g., reduction in fake account creation, improvement in email engagement, reduction in chargebacks, improved marketing ROI… these will justify investment.
Here are detailed case studies and strategic commentary on how AtData is advancing email‑intelligence for digital identity and fraud‑prevention.
Case Study 1: Financial Institution – Strengthening Fraud Prevention in Lending
Client: A large U.S. consumer‑finance business (annual revenue > US$2 billion) offering personal loans. (AtData)
Challenge: The client faced rising fraud across digital channels: fake account creation, fraudulent applications, account takeover risk, and weak visibility into the underlying email identity of users. They needed a real‑time, scalable way to flag risk early. (AtData)
Solution: The institution integrated AtData’s API to gain email‑based signals: age of email account, history of domain, email behavioural patterns, and connection to known fraud networks. They were able to embed these signals into their onboarding and transaction flows. (AtData)
Results & Benefits:
- The client reported faster detection of high‑risk behaviour, enabling more confident escalation or blocking decisions. (AtData)
- They prevented fake account creation and reduced promotion‑abuse and fraudulent loans by intervening at the email‑signal stage rather than downstream. (AtData)
- They gained improved operational efficiency because fewer resources were wasted reviewing obviously high‑risk cases. (AtData)
Commentary: - This case underscores the insight that email addresses are not just identifiers, but rich behavioural and identity signals. AtData’s ability to turn an email into a risk‑profile changed the paradigm.
- Important success factors: seamless integration into existing flows; decisioning based on real‑time email signals; leveraging that before the fraud event escalated.
- For organisations: the ROI may come not just from blocking fraud losses, but from shifting from reactive to proactive fraud workflows.
Case Study 2: eCommerce Platform – Reducing Fake Accounts and Abuse
Client: An online eCommerce platform plagued by fake accounts, referral abuse, account take‑overs and resulting chargeback risk. (merchantriskcouncil.org)
Challenge: Fraudsters used disposable emails and synthetic identities to create multiple accounts, exploit promotional offers and take over legitimate user identities. The firm’s manual screening was overwhelmed.
Solution: They deployed AtData’s “Fraud Prevention” API to validate email activity, domain risk, account‑age, and behavioural signals at account creation and transaction time. (AtData)
Results:
- Within weeks, the platform reported a dramatic drop in fake‑account creation attempts and successful fraud entries. (merchantriskcouncil.org)
- The visibility into email‑risk signals allowed the firm to raise friction only when necessary (good UX for legit users) while blocking high‑risk flows.
Commentary: - This illustrates how email intelligence can help balance fraud prevention vs customer experience: by only flagging high‑risk cases, you reduce false positives and friction.
- It also demonstrates the value of email‑history and domain profiling (not just “is this email valid?”) for anti‑fraud.
- For eCommerce and digital platforms: adopting such intelligent signals early in the user journey helps shift from “catching fraud after the fact” to “preventing fraud at the gate”.
Case Study 3: Industry Insight – Email Indicators Driving Fraud in Digital Payments
Study by AtData: Analysis of over 4 million transactions revealed four high‑risk email signals: disposable domains, new email accounts, anonymised/proxy IPs, and domain reputation. (PR Newswire)
Key findings:
- Emails from disposable domains had fraud rates >70% in some industries. (PR Newswire)
- Emails created just days before a transaction were 25× more likely to be fraudulent; email accounts < 30 days old had 35× risk in lending. (PR Newswire)
- International/proxy IPs increased fraud risk by up to ~14.6× in some lending cases. (merchantriskcouncil.org)
- Poor domain reputation increased risk ~10.3×. (merchantriskcouncil.org)
Commentary:
- This research is significant because it quantifies how email attributes tie to fraud risk — giving firms actionable thresholds.
- It illustrates that many organisations may be overlooking email metadata (age, domain, usage) and relying on older fraud‑filters.
- Strategically, it emphasizes that email intelligence is a leading indicator, not lagging — organisations that adopt this may gain competitive advantage in fraud mitigation and trust.
Strategic Commentary & Discussion
Why email intelligence matters now:
- As digital business models proliferate (fintech, eCommerce, marketplace), the cost of fraud, synthetic identities, referral abuse, and account takeover rises. Email addresses act as an early touchpoint and therefore a critical risk vector.
- Traditional identity and fraud tools (SSN checks, device fingerprinting) either are bypassed or too late in the cycle. Email intelligence offers an early, high‑leverage signal.
- AtData’s capabilities (20+ years of data, billions of monthly email signals) give scale, but also depth: historical lineage, behavioural context and domain ecosystem intelligence. (AtData)
What works in practice:
- Integrate email‑risk intelligence as early as onboarding or account‑creation flows. The earlier you intercept, the lower the cost of fraud.
- Use signal tiers: e.g., account‑age, domain‑risk, disposable domain, IP anomaly. Combine these into real‑time risk scoring.
- Ensure your fraud decision logic uses the intelligence meaningfully: block, escalate, or allow with low friction depending on risk band.
- Maintain UX balance: over‑blocking hurts legitimate users; email intelligence helps reduce false positives by using more nuanced signals.
- Monitor emerging fraud vectors. For example, AtData flagged “hyper‑disposable domains” (domains with lifespans under 7 days) as nearly half of high‑risk disposable domains. (PR Newswire)
Risks & caveats:
- Email intelligence is powerful, but like all signals, can be evaded if not combined with broader identity/fraud strategy (device signals, behaviour monitoring, geolocation checks).
- Data privacy and compliance: email intelligence often links email + other metadata; firms must ensure consent, transparency and regulatory compliance (GDPR, CCPA).
- Reporting & accountability: Organisations must track how email‑risk scoring affects user flows, false positives, conversions, and fraud outcomes.
- Over‑reliance on email alone can introduce bias; e.g., legitimate users with new email addresses might get blocked — so calibration and monitoring are important.
Final Summary
AtData’s case studies demonstrate that email intelligence is no longer a nice‑to‑have for fraud and digital identity — it’s becoming a strategic capability. By turning the humble email address into a multi‑dimensional risk profile (age, domain, behaviour, network activity), organisations can prevent fraud proactively, improve customer experience and strengthen digital trust.
For organisations evaluating fraud‑defense upgrades: begin by identifying how early in the user journey you can apply email intelligence, integrate with your decisioning logic, monitor outcomes (fraud reduction, conversion impact), and scale across onboarding, promotional offers, account‑changes and transactional flows.