Josh South
, Director of Marketing and Technology at SuperATV

The Challenge: Card Cracking Attacks on Payment Systems

SuperATV’s online store, an essential part of its business, has begun to attract the attention of malicious actors in recent years. It started off subtly—just a few unusual payment rejections here and there. But then came a warning from their credit card payment processor: SuperATV was seeing a massive spike in fraudulent activity. Bots had broken into the website’s systems, and they were launching card cracking attacks—automated scripts rapidly testing stolen credit card numbers to find valid combinations.

Josh South, SuperATV’s Director of Marketing and Technology knew this was a serious threat. “The processors alerted us to an extreme rise in fraud attempts, and we quickly realized we couldn’t just sit back and hope it would go away,” Josh explains. “Worst-case scenario? We could have lost the ability to process credit cards altogether if the fraudulent activity had kept escalating.”

In an attempt to combat the problem, Josh and his team tried the usual steps—manual log checks, firewall tweaks, and Google’s reCAPTCHA—but the bots were relentless. They had become too sophisticated for these traditional defenses. “None of those measures were really sufficient,” Josh recalls. “The heuristic patterns of bot attacks were just too complex to catch with human eyes alone. We needed AI models.”

The Solution: AI-Powered Defense That Integrates Seamlessly with Website Infrastructure

So Josh and his team began their search for a solution that could outsmart the increasingly sophisticated attacks. Looking for a cutting-edge defense that could block threats while learning and adapting in real time, they found DataDome. The brand’s reputation for unparalleled detection accuracy and high ratings from research firms confirmed their choice. “Forrester’s assessment of DataDome as a leader in this field really reinforced our decision,” Josh adds.

Integration was straightforward, with DataDome quickly connecting to SuperATV’s existing infrastructure. “We were live in about three weeks,” Josh recalls. “The fact that DataDome had transparent integrations with our previous CDN, Fastly, made the set-up incredibly easy.” Even when SuperATV later transitioned to Vercel, the integration was just as seamless. The DataDome team was proactive, resolving potential issues before they could escalate.

The Results: Strengthened Security, Proactive Risk Mitigation & Smoother User Experience

Once DataDome was fully operational, the effects were almost immediate. SuperATV’s payment system became a fortress, blocking bot-driven attacks before they could do damage. “The bot traffic has decreased to the point where it’s negligible for us,” Josh enthuses. “We’re still targeted occasionally, but now the attacks are stopped in their tracks before they can become a real problem.”

The most obvious benefit was the elimination of card cracking attempts, but the advantages go far beyond just preventing fraud.

One of the key perks was the ability to anticipate future risks and protect the user experience before it is compromised. Although SuperATV hadn’t faced significant outages or data security breaches, the growing presence of bad bots could have caused serious problems over time. “When bots flood a site, they take up valuable resources that slow things down for legitimate customers,” Josh explains. “By eliminating this traffic, we’ve ensured that our genuine customers enjoy a smooth experience.”

The biggest surprise came when Josh and his team began exploring the dashboard. DataDome wasn’t just protecting them from card cracking—it was exposing a whole range of other threats they hadn’t even known were there. “We started seeing potential DDoS attacks and vulnerability scans that were going unnoticed before. DataDome gave us a much clearer picture of the full extent of the threats we were facing,” says Josh. This broader view into their traffic helped SuperATV to mitigate additional risks.

Ultimately, Josh would definitely recommend DataDome not only for its AI-based bot and online fraud detection, but also for the excellent support provided by the team. He remembers how they would reach out to fix problems before they even became noticeable. “The DataDome team was on top of everything—there were times when we didn’t even have to file a ticket because they had already identified and solved the issue. That level of responsiveness is rare.”