TextCortex: Preventing Freemium Fraud with TrustPath

TrustPath delivered immediate and measurable impact, transforming user validation and fraud mitigation across the platform. From cost savings to improved data quality and operational efficiency, the results speak for themselves.

• Estimated 150,000 € in annual resource cost savings driven by reduced impact of malicious users, such as fake or automated accounts, which previously increased support overhead, fraud remediation, and data noise.

• 36% Reduction Account signups handled by TrustPath experienced a 36% reduction in fraudulent or automated activity one month post-implementation.

• Enhanced visibility into disposable email usage and bot-originated traffic

• Improved data quality by filtering out invalid or temporary user accounts

• Increased operational efficiency through automated fraud flagging

• Greater compliance and platform trustworthiness, ensuring that real users benefit from the service

Background

TextCortex is an AI-powered knowledge agent platform that supports over 2 million users worldwide. With its rapid growth and generous free-tier offering, the company began to notice patterns that hinted at misuse: sudden spikes in new user signups, unusually high activity from certain IP ranges, and increased load from seemingly low-value accounts.

Behind many of these anomalies were automated bots and organized account farming operations — users creating multiple fake accounts to exploit platform features intended for genuine individuals. These bad actors not only threatened service quality and fairness but also inflated user metrics, making it harder to assess real product performance.

More critically, each fake account carried a financial cost — from large language model cost of token processing, server usage and email verification services to downstream support and moderation overhead. As the volume of abuse grew, so did the operational burden.

Recognizing the need for proactive protection, the TextCortex team sought a smarter fraud detection solution that could identify malicious signups in real time — without introducing unnecessary friction for legitimate users.

Challenge

TextCortex encountered persistent challenges related to automated account creation and account farming, including:

• Surge in signups using disposable or temporary emails

• Human-assisted farming to exploit free-tier benefits

• Fake account creation using bots and scripts

These activities led to skewed analytics, overconsumption of platform resources, and increased moderation overhead.

Solution: TrustPath Integration

To counteract these threats, TextCortex implemented TrustPath, a fraud detection API designed to identify and prevent malicious behavior during account registration.

Features Deployed:

• IP Intelligence: Analyzes IP addresses to detect high-risk sign-up sources — including VPNs, datacenter proxies, TOR nodes, and IPs associated with known fraud patterns — enabling early intervention before suspicious users enter the system.

• Email Intelligence: Evaluates email addresses in real time to flag disposable, temporary, or low-reputation domains. This helps prevent access by users employing burner emails commonly used for spam, bot farming, or bypassing usage limits.

• Real-Time Risk Scoring: Assigns dynamic risk scores to each registration attempt based on a combination of device, IP, behavior, and identity signals. High-risk attempts can be instantly blocked or routed for additional verification, keeping onboarding seamless for genuine users.

• Custom Rule Engine: Allows TextCortex to define and update fraud detection logic tailored to its evolving threat landscape. Rules can combine multiple signals for more nuanced and effective blocking decisions.

Implementation followed TrustPath's Account Registration Integration Guide, which outlines real-time, API-based fraud screening for new account events.

Conclusion

By integrating TrustPath's fraud detection system, TextCortex has substantially elevated its platform security and user authenticity. The enhanced visibility into bot activity and throwaway email usage now allows the company to make better decisions, enforce fair usage, and preserve resources for legitimate users.

Learn more about TextCortex's stance on privacy and user protection in their Privacy Policy