Enhancing Credit Card Fraud Detection Using a Stacking Model Approach and Hyperparameter Optimization
El Bazi Abdelghafour, Chrayah Mohamed, Noura Aknin, Abdelhamid Bouzidi · International Journal of Advanced Computer Science and Applications · 2024
Credit card fraud detection has emerged as a crucial area of study, especially with the rise in online transactions coupled with increased financial losses from fraudulent activities. In this regard, a refined framework for identifying credit card fraud is introduced, utilizing a stacking ensemble model along with hyperparameter optimization. This paper integrates three highly effective algorithms—XGBoost, CatBoost, and Light-GBM—into a single strategy to improve predictive performance and address the issue of unbalanced datasets. To enable a more efficient search and adjustment of model parameters, Bayesian Optimization is employed for hyperparameter tuning. The proposed approach has been tested on a publicly accessible dataset. Results indicate notable enhancements over established baseline models in essential performance metrics, including ROC-AUC, precision, and recall. This method, while effective in fraud detection, holds significant promise for other fields focused on identifying rare occurrences.