How fraud signals work, and what they never do

Scoring orders a queue and argues for attention. It does not suspend, reject or penalise anyone.

5 min readEveryone

Scoring proposes; a person disposes

This is the standing rule for the whole platform. Automated judgement may not autonomously reject a tenant, suspend an account, deduct a deposit or approve a payment.

Nothing in the fraud system decides anything. A score orders a queue and argues for attention. Every consequence still runs through a suspension or a verification decision, each of which demands a person and a written reason.

The signals

Each signal is phrased as a possibility rather than a conclusion, because they get read out to the person concerned. "Photos appear elsewhere" is a fact worth checking; "this listing is stolen" is an accusation nobody has established.

Critical — a bank account used by another account; a bank name that does not match the Ghana Card; a tenant reporting a request to pay off-platform
High — photos appearing on another listing; a phone number used by another account
Medium — a description copied from another listing; rent far below the area; many listings in a short period; a high-value listing on an unverified account

How the score is built

Deliberately simple and legible rather than clever. Signals carry fixed weights — low 5, medium 15, high 35, critical 60 — which are added together and capped at 100.

It is additive rather than multiplicative so that three medium signals add up to real concern, while no amount of low-grade noise reaches critical on its own. A single critical signal does reach critical, because rent for two landlords landing in one bank account does not need corroboration to be worth a person's time.

An opaque model number would be useless in a dispute. When someone asks why their account was flagged, "the model said 78" is not an answer.

Signals that have been dealt with stop counting

Scores are computed from unresolved flags only. A resolved flag is a question that has been answered, and leaving it in the score would mean an account could never recover from having once been looked at.

Who can see them

Signals and scores are visible to Domicium staff only. Showing someone the signals against them would tell a real fraudster exactly which check to defeat next.

A report you make is different: it belongs to you, and you can see your own reports.

Still stuck?

Email info@domicium.com or WhatsApp +233 54 012 8220. To report a listing or a person, use complaints in your dashboard.