Running a loyalty program shouldn’t mean opening the door to fraud. At PAR Engagement, we know that loyalty is more than just perks, it’s a strategic engine that drives repeat visits, builds deeper guest relationships, and turns data into dollars. Protecting that engine from fraud is critical to sustaining your revenue and maintaining guest trust.
When someone signs up multiple times, they also create multiple birthdays, grabbing birthday rewards throughout the year. With PAR Engagement, you’re protected. You can restrict birthday offers during the first year if a guest’s selects a date to be the same month they joined. We also lock birthday fields after sign-up so guests can’t continually change dates to chase more offers. For even greater control, you can segment birthday rewards by spend, ensuring your most loyal guests receive the best incentives.
Some guests will place large orders online, then cancel just to keep the points. It’s a quick way for them to build up rewards — and a quick way for your costs to spiral. PAR Engagement allows you to add a delay between when a transaction happens and when points are issued, so if an order is canceled, the system automatically prevents points from being awarded. It’s a simple safeguard that has a big impact on stopping fraudulent earning.
Referral programs are magnets for abuse if not properly controlled. Guests may post their referral codes online to rack up endless rewards without driving genuine new traffic. The Punchh Platform lets you tier referral rewards based on volume and even cut off incentives entirely when after a suspicious volume of referrals occurs. You control the thresholds and can adjust them anytime, ensuring your referral program grows your customer base without turning into an unchecked giveaway.
With PAR Engagement, every loyalty offer carries a unique ID that’s also only valid for a short period, like 15 minutes. This means guests can’t redeem the same offer multiple times or share it with others. This keeps your offers targeted and your redemptions in check, helping protect ROI on loyalty campaigns.
Promo codes are another favorite tool for those looking to game the system. Without proper controls, guests might repeatedly use public codes or share them widely online. The Punchh Platform offers controls to ensure that guests tie promo codes to their individual profiles before they can redeem them. This stops broad exploitation and ensures your discounts are connected to real, trackable guests.
Without an enterprise-grade system, it’s easy for guests to find loopholes that let them earn on the same purchase twice. For example, by scanning a QR code at the counter and later uploading a receipt. Or by scanning the same receipt with multiple accounts in a short timeframe. PAR Engagement prevents this by immediately linking every transaction to specific guest interactions, blocking multiple point accruals from the same purchase and identifying suspicious patterns so you can take action when needed.
Fraud isn’t just about opportunistic guests. Bad actors use credential stuffing (taking stolen usernames and passwords from other sites) to break into loyalty accounts. PAR Engagement stops this with advanced rate limiting, bot detection, and Cloudflare’s JA3 fingerprinting that ties accounts to verified devices. We also actively monitor in real time, so if there’s suspicious activity, it’s flagged immediately. Guests get notified if their accounts are ever accessed from new devices, giving them power to lock down access fast.
PAR Engagement makes it clear: a loyalty program should be a growth lever, not a liability. As fraud evolves, so do we. Our tools safeguard your margins, protect your guest data, and deliver a seamless experience that keeps guests coming back for the right reasons.
