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At Checkout.com, we spend a lot of time talking to merchants. But at Elevate New York, our thought leadership event for forward-thinking payment teams, we created a space for leading payment professionals to speak directly, sharing challenges, solutions, and lessons learned across the industry.
Tracy Kobeda Brown, formerly from the Merchant Risk Council (MRC), Andres Trevino from L’Oréal, and Gus Jacobs from the New York Times all joined the panel to discuss how they’re navigating fraud, staying ahead of innovation, and using orchestration to power performance. It was a rare chance to hear firsthand how three of the most respected brands in the region are solving real-world challenges.
Here’s what we heard, and why it matters.
Staying ahead of innovation and fraud
Payments are evolving quickly. New technologies, from real-time rails to AI-driven fraud detection, are reshaping how merchants think about performance and risk. It’s a constant balancing act: trying to adopt the latest tools to improve approval rates and reduce fraud, without derailing your engineering roadmap.
“Moments like this are really helpful,” Gus shared. “Engaging with other merchants and folks from the MRC always brings something new.” He also cited staying close to acquiring partners and news as essential.
Tracy’s role gives her a panoramic view: “I get to talk to all the merchants, the acquirers, the card networks, and solution providers like Checkout.com. That’s where the insight comes from.”
Andres added that vendors are a lifeline: “They see the problems first. I bring them issues, and they come back with insights. But also conferences are invaluable for sharing pain points.”
Deepfakes, refund abuse, and friendly fraud
Fraud is changing faster than most teams can react, and merchants are feeling the pressure.
Tracy called out a growing list of pain points: real-time payment fraud, refund policy abuse, and deepfakes. “The deepfake stuff is terrifying because nobody has come up with a solution to combat it. It’s one of the top five things I hear from merchants,” she said.
Data from Checkout.com’s Trust in the Digital Economy Report shows that 49% of U.S. consumers say they feel at risk from deepfake scams, and believe it’s an immediate threat to their digital security.
Andres noted a shift from traditional fraud to more nuanced abuse. “Credit card fraud is going down, but friendly fraud is up,” he said. Some customers abuse refund and return policies, sometimes sending back entirely different products to secure a refund. The issue has become so prevalent that L’Oréal now has a dedicated loss prevention team to manage the impact.
Gus shared his perspective on fraud in digital subscriptions. “Since we sell digital subscriptions, we are not targeted for return fraud like we might be if we were shipping expensive goods around the globe. Card testing and automated attacks are more relevant to the digital subscription economy, and to mitigate those risks requires bot detection and logic that helps to observe and stop automated or otherwise nefarious subscription buyers.”
Another stat from Checkout.com’s recent report shows that 40% of consumers say they have experienced payment fraud through scams or hacking, and over half say they no longer feel confident about online safety.
For all three merchants, AI isn’t just part of the future of fraud, it’s already reshaping the threat landscape. The pace of change is pushing fraud teams to rethink models, tooling, and priorities.
If your fraud strategy hasn’t changed in the last year, it’s already behind.
Why orchestration is gaining ground
Both Andres and Gus are rolling out orchestration strategies, and seeing early signs of impact. For L’Oréal, it’s about making connections smoother. “We now have one dashboard to see declines, authorization rates, chargebacks – everything,” Andres explained. “Before, we were receiving different file formats from every PSP. Now it’s all consolidated into one view.” That standardization is saving time and reducing risk.
“Every new integration used to be a delicate, manual process,” Andres added. “Now, we can plug in a new processor or payment method with minimal IT resources. It’s already part of the orchestration layer.” For a business of L’Oréal’s complexity, that shift is game-changing.
Gus emphasized the agility orchestration brings. “We were able to turn on Google Pay without having to rebuild anything from scratch,” he said. That ability to move quickly doesn’t just improve time-to-market – it strengthens their negotiating position. “Now that we’re not locked into a single acquirer, we’ve got real leverage,” he told us.
From conversation to action
This panel made one thing clear: the payments landscape is more complex, and more collaborative, than ever before.
Whether it’s combating fraud, adopting orchestration, or preparing for the impact of real-time payments, leading merchants are not acting in isolation. They are leaning on each other, on solution providers, and on communities like the MRC to solve problems faster and build smarter.
The trends shared at Elevate are already shaping roadmaps in North America and beyond.
To explore how Checkout.com can help you reduce fraud and stay ahead of change, contact our sales team today.
