Using Transaction Amount to Guide Learning in an Fraud Detection Machine Learning Model I am currently using transaction amount as a feature in an XGBoost classification model designed to identify fraudulent transactions. Furthermore, transaction amount is bounded for this problem between 0 and 500. Using transaction amount as a feature does improve target class separability. However, I can't help but wonder if there is a better way to use this variable. To explain, I care more about getting the high transaction amount values correct than I do the low ones. However, the model does not currently comprehend that. I have taught the XGBoost algorithm that the positive class is in effect more important by adjusting scale_pos_weight, but I haven't thought of a way to teach the algorithm that high transaction amount values are more important.
EDIT: I wanted to provide a bit more detail. After some additional reading, I think what I may be looking for is some kind of custom objective function. Possibly something like what is being discussed here.
Since you are using boosting models you can add something named monotonic constraints:
It is often the case in a modeling problem or project that the functional form of an acceptable model is constrained in some way. This may happen due to business considerations, or because of the type of scientific question being investigated. In some cases, where there is a very strong prior belief that the true relationship has some quality, constraints can be used to improve the predictive performance of the model.
I also recommend to read this post