Mapping the hidden web: How TrueBiz’s Graph Networks uniquely combat transaction laundering

In the age of AI, illicit activity is getting harder to spot – and more dangerous to ignore. Transaction laundering is one of the fastest-growing threats to payment processors and financial institutions, quietly enabling unauthorized businesses to operate behind the mask of legitimate businesses. And traditional detection methods simply can’t keep up.

At TrueBiz, we believe there’s a better way: mapping the internet itself.

Transaction Laundering is a growing threat

Transaction laundering happens when a hidden merchant routes payments through a legitimate storefront passing through standard approval processes and exposing payment processors to compliance violations, reputational damage, and regulatory penalties. It’s an increasingly popular tactic for prohibited or high-risk businesses looking to skirt the rules.

The challenge? These operations don’t look suspicious at first glance. Their online presence is designed to blend in, with no overt red flags. That means many compliance teams are flying blind, relying on reactive checks, manual reviews, or surface-level signals that miss the deeper connections.

Signals are difficult to detect in isolation

Most transaction launderers are digital chameleons. They duplicate websites, share hosting infrastructure, recycle content, and hide behind layers of shell businesses. Individually, these signals might not raise concern. But taken together, they reveal patterns – and networks – of abuse.

Legacy detection tools were never designed to find those patterns. They assess each business in isolation, making it too easy for compliance teams to miss the bigger picture. This approach needs to change. Instead of inspecting one merchant at a time, analysts should start asking: what else is connected to this business? 

Our proprietary graph analysis uncovers 5x more hidden risk indicators

That’s where graph network analysis comes in. By mapping the relationships between websites, businesses, people, infrastructure, and digital assets like social media pages, it becomes possible to trace suspicious affiliations and uncover coordinated activity. What once appeared to be an isolated actor starts to reveal a web of interconnected operations.

TrueBiz has built the first solution that brings graph network intelligence into everyday merchant reviews – without adding complexity for analysts.

How TrueBiz Graph Networks Work:

When you monitor a merchant website URL through TrueBiz, you get more than a snapshot of a single website. You get a 360-degree view of its digital and physical connections

Digital Infrastructure Connections

We identify when businesses share components such as hosting infrastructure, IP addresses, or website components uniquely used to design or build their website. Transaction launderers often utilize the same digital infrastructure across multiple operations, creating patterns that are only detectable when viewed through our graph network lens.

Code-Level Connections

Our system identifies shared unique identifiers embedded in website code, such as tracking parameters. By leveraging data from comprehensive web crawls, we can detect when websites share these digital fingerprints, often indicating common ownership or management.

Traffic Patterns and Referrals

Businesses engaged in transaction laundering frequently maintain networks of interconnected websites to drive traffic or obscure their activities. Our graph network maps these referral pathways, uncovering hidden affiliations and redirects that suggest potentially problematic relationships.

Physical World Connections

Our technology extends beyond the digital realm to identify shared physical locations, contact information, and key personnel across businesses. By connecting digital and physical world data points, we create a more complete picture of business relationships.

Content Similarities

We analyze website content across the internet, identifying when content is duplicated or substantially similar. This helps detect potential cloning of legitimate websites for fraudulent purposes.

From insight to action

This powerful graph network analysis is delivered in less than 30 seconds, and directly embedded in our standard review workflow.

And it  doesn’t just surface data – it helps you act on it. Our system flags entities that appear connected to prohibited businesses or violate compliance rules, enabling your team to focus on targeted investigations. That means less time chasing false positives, and more time preventing real risk.

For example, when a major merchant acquiring onboarded what seemed like a legitimate fitness equipment retailer, our system immediately flagged that the exact same phone number was detected on a gambling website. This connection, invisible to traditional screening, allowed the acquirer to take immediate action before processing a single transaction from this merchant.

Because our graph is constantly evolving, you’re always equipped to detect emerging laundering techniques as they arise. By continuously monitoring the web and expanding our understanding of relationships between entities, we stay ahead of emerging threats and new methods of disguising illicit activities.

The benefits extend far beyond compliance:

• Reputation Protection: Ensure your platform isn't unwittingly supporting prohibited businesses

• Fraud Reduction: Identify potentially fraudulent merchants before they can cause harm

• Operational Efficiency: Focus compliance efforts on genuinely suspicious activities

• Ecosystem Integrity: Contribute to a safer, more transparent digital economy

Trusted by the ecosystem

TrueBiz is a Mastercard Merchant Monitoring Provider, helping payment providers and acquirers meet card network obligations with confidence. Our technology is already trusted by some of the world’s leading payment platforms to ensure regulatory compliance, reduce fraud, and protect their brand.

In a world where every website is just one click away from another, compliance teams need tools that see the bigger picture.

TrueBiz gives you the visibility to detect hidden risks – fast. Want to learn how? Get in touch with our team today.