Pro Insight: What Are Reason Codes and Where To Find Them Follow

What are reason codes?

Reason codes are the positive and negative signals located on each side of the Identity Risk Score. They provide insights into the Identity Graph elements driving the score low or high. Reason codes help manual review agents understand the context and logic behind the score. As dynamic signals, reason codes draw from all transaction inputs (the five core digital and traditional data attributes of name, email, phone, address, and IP) to display the most impactful signals contributing to Identity Risk Score.

What are the different types of reason codes? How many reason codes are there? 

At Ekata, we deliver on data excellence with an evolving database of 200+ signals. These signals are based on either the Identity Graph or the Identity Network, two powerful and proprietary datasets that make up the Identity Engine. The types of reason codes possible are based on the five core digital and traditional data attributes of name, email, phone, address, and IP, as well as behavioral attributes reflected in the Identity Network such as velocity (a measure of the number of times an identity attribute has been seen in previous transactions), popularity (the number of merchants that have seen an identity attribute), volatility (the number of times an attribute has been paired with a different data point in transactions), and age (the maturity of an attribute as measured by its history in the Ekata network - older attributes suggest a more reliable and trustworthy data point).=

Where can I find reason codes?

Reason codes are the positive and negative signals located on each side of the Identity Risk Score. They also appear in the network panel if salient reason codes exist for an attribute. You can view these in the column of each attribute.

What do the bars beside reason codes mean?

Each reason code is paired with a 5-scale bar. This is a visual representation of the strength of the signal. A reason code that has a weaker impact on the Identity Risk Score (low strength) will only have one bar of the five filled in. A reason code with greater impact on the Identity Risk Score (high strength) will have all five bars filled in. Reason codes are listed in order of importance, with the strongest signals listed first.

Why are there sometimes more / fewer reason codes next to a risk score?

Our models will always display the most impactful signals for a risk score in order to provide manual review agents with the context they need to accurately approve customers and reject fraudsters based on the data available. 

• When the Identity Risk Score is on the high end of the possible range of 0-500 (for example, over 450), this is considered a likely risky score. As a result, the number of negative reason codes shown will be greater than the number of positive reason codes shown. High risk scores will have few, if any, positive reason codes to show.
• When the Identity Risk Score is on the low end of the possible range of 0-500 (for example, under 150), this is considered a likely safe score. As a result, the number of positive reason codes shown will be greater than the number of negative reason codes shown. Low risk scores will have few, if any, negative reason codes to show. 

Identity risk scores that fall in the middle, and may be more likely to be considered of uncertain risk will display any relevant reason codes next to the score. If either positive or negative reason codes are fewer than expected, this can indicate there was missing input data, or the provided input data was invalid. In these cases, a lack of reason codes tends to suggest a riskier transaction.

To understand a risk score that is not very risky or very safe, a manual review agent can look into the details of the different identity attributes for further context.