Strategic fraud prevention is no longer about managing losses after the fact; it is about disrupting the economic framework criminal networks use to prioritize stolen assets. Our latest research “The Economics of Card Testing” confirms that the most effective point for security leaders to intervene is during the testing phase, where signal fidelity is at its highest and operational friction is at its lowest. Why Fraud Mitigation Must Prioritize the Testing Phase Our findings, based on an analysis of over 4.2 million compromised credit, debit, and gift cards, highlight three critical areas where early detection provides a decisive advantage: 1. Precision Over Noise: Unlike static data (breached cards lists), which is often stale and leads to high false positives, testing activity represents a deliberate investment by fraudsters, providing a high-confidence signal of intent. 2. The Predictive Lead Time: Analysis shows that myNetWatchman identifies compromised cards first, often 20 to 30 days before they surface in underground channels or dark-market shops. 3. Segmented Risk Profiles: Criminals do not treat all cards equally. They test debit and gift cards far more aggressively, averaging 20 to 70+ micro-tests within 30 days, because of their immediate liquidity. The Bottom Line By detecting compromised cards during the testing phase, issuers can shift from reactive loss recovery to proactive prevention. This enables targeted controls, such as selective step-up authentication or temporary spend limits, rather than the broad and expensive "slash-and-burn" approach of mass card reissuance.