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World Journal of Advanced Research and Reviews
Article . 2025 . Peer-reviewed
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ZENODO
Article . 2025
License: CC BY
Data sources: ZENODO
ZENODO
Article . 2025
License: CC BY
Data sources: Datacite
ZENODO
Article . 2025
License: CC BY
Data sources: Datacite
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Fraud Detection in Financial Transactions Using Machine Learning: Insights from the PaySim Mobile Money Dataset

Authors: Alumona, Paschal; Lawal, Oluwatosin; Ikhifa, Mark Onons; Agbeso, Deborah Omonzua; Awele, Okolie; Olukoya, Didunoluwa;

Fraud Detection in Financial Transactions Using Machine Learning: Insights from the PaySim Mobile Money Dataset

Abstract

The rapid digital transformation of financial systems has increased the risk of fraud in mobile payment ecosystems. This paper analyzes fraudulent behavior in the PaySim mobile-money dataset using feature engineering and supervised classification. We trained and compared Logistic Regression, K-Nearest Neighbors (KNN), Decision Tree, and Random Forest classifiers using stratified 80:20 splitting and class-weighting to counter extreme class imbalance. For the test set, Decision Tree achieved the best overall balance between precision and recall (Precision = 0.6835, Recall = 0.9696, F1 = 0.8018, ROC-AUC = 0.9845). Random Forest produced very high recall (0.9838) and ROC-AUC (0.9990) but low precision (0.1576), resulting in many false positives. These results indicate ensemble and tree-based methods can detect most fraud events in this dataset, but there is a trade-off between minimizing missed fraud (false negatives) and limiting false alarms for legitimate users. We recommend using precision–recall analysis, threshold tuning, and cost-sensitive methods in operational settings to control that trade-off.

Keywords

Machine Learning, Mobile Money, Random Forest, Financial Fraud Detection, Artificial Intelligence, Data Analytics, Financial Technology (FinTech), PaySim Dataset, Predictive Modeling, Digital Transactions

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selected citations
These citations are derived from selected sources.
This is an alternative to the "Influence" indicator, which also reflects the overall/total impact of an article in the research community at large, based on the underlying citation network (diachronically).
BIP!Citations provided by BIP!
popularity
This indicator reflects the "current" impact/attention (the "hype") of an article in the research community at large, based on the underlying citation network.
BIP!Popularity provided by BIP!
influence
This indicator reflects the overall/total impact of an article in the research community at large, based on the underlying citation network (diachronically).
BIP!Influence provided by BIP!
impulse
This indicator reflects the initial momentum of an article directly after its publication, based on the underlying citation network.
BIP!Impulse provided by BIP!
0
Average
Average
Average
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gold