What’s up fraud fighters, and welcome back to Fraud Forward!Today I’m sitting in the guest chair.If you caught the episode of The Saturday Fraud Strategist that dropped alongside this one, you already know Chen Zamir and I decided to swap roles. He came on Fraud Forward to interview me, and I went on his show to interview him. We are heading to Money 20/20 in Vegas together and thought this would be a fun way to kick it off.I spend a lot of time asking questions. Sitting on the other side of the mic is a different experience, and Chen does not ask easy questions. This conversation went places I did not fully expect. We ended in a discussion about how to build a fraud program that works, and more importantly, what gets in the way. If you have ever walked into an organization that has been fighting fraud for a year, spent money on vendors and headcount, and still were at the same place you started, this episode is for you. The answer is a lot deeper than adding another tool.What you will hear in this episode:How to build a fraud program assessment when you walk into an organization that has been struggling and nobody can tell you whyWhy fraud and risk management starts with people, process, technology, and data in that order, and why most organizations start with technology and create more problemsThe fraud capacity planning model I built as a practitioner to prove headcount needs to executives, including the three-minute-per-alert calculation and how to build a 40-hour week model that accounts for everything your team actually doesWhy fraud team structure matters before you can optimize anything, and how to answer the centralized versus decentralized question before you start hiring or buyingThe fraud risk assessment framework I consider the most important tool in a fraud leader's program, including the difference between inherent risk vs residual risk fraud and why a lack of losses does not mean a lack of riskWhy fraud technology layering done wrong looks like stacking medications that interact badly with each other, and what fraud technology gap analysis actually looks like before a vendor demoHow authorized push payment fraud breaks the fraud stack that was built around a single question, is this actually our customer, and why scam detection behavioral signals require a completely different approachThe scam intervention banking framework I used as a practitioner, including targeted friction, cooling off periods, and the phrase I call my mic drop momentHow I approach fraud executive communication and fraud program advocacy when leadership sees losses on a dashboard and misses the fifteen million the team preventedThe fraud dashboard reporting model I want to see: attempted fraud, prevented fraud, actual loss, normalized against transaction volume or deposits, not just gross fraud lossesWhy human in the loop fraud AI is not scalable and what human on the loop means for fraud team skill development right nowWhere fraud program maturity actually stands based on the benchmarking work I have been doing, and why fraud teams are doing better than we give ourselves credit forYou should listen to this episode if you:Are building or rebuilding a fraud program and want to hear how I actually approach it from the ground up, not a framework from a textbook but the real process I used as a practitionerHave ever had to justify headcount, technology, or budget to a leadership team that does not fully understand what fraud prevention actually involves and want a model that makes the case with dataWork at a bank or credit union and are feeling the pressure of the shift from unauthorized fraud to authorized push payment fraud and scams and are not sure how to adapt your fraud stackWant the fraud capacity planning model I built manually as a practitioner, the three-minute-per-alert calculation and the 40-hour week breakdown that finally got leadership to listenAre trying to figure out where AI fits in your fraud program without losing the investigators you have spent years developingLead a fraud team and want to know where fraud program maturity actually stands based on the benchmarking work I have been doing across financial institutionsHave ever walked into a room of blank stares when you asked your team what is actually driving fraud losses and needed a better starting point for that conversation
What’s up fraud fighters, and welcome back to Fraud Forward!I am bringing you more from here at IAFCI in Nashville. I've caught up with fraud fighters, bank executives, and law enforcement leaders for a rapid-fire soundcheck on where fraud is headed. I've been asking everyone I sit down with the same question. If you had one word to describe fraud in 2026, what would it be? The answers ranged from trending and explosive, to complex, and evolving. Sometimes fraud couldn't be contained by only one word. Honestly, they all fit.There were so many great conversations this week. They didn't fit into one episode. They barely fit into two. So this episode is a rapid series of conversations covering everything from bust out fraud to elder fraud prevention, dealership schemes, and where IAFCI itself is headed under new leadership. Every one of these conversations left me with something I want to bring straight back to you. These conversations are not just about what we are facing. But also how we can overcome the rising challenges in our community, the tools, the collaboration, and the partnerships between law enforcement and banking that are only getting stronger. Let's get into it. What you'll hear in this episode:Why bust out fraud is being called a real hot topic right now. How these rings are migrating away from California and Florida as enforcement catches up.How auto lending fraud, first party fraud, and income misrepresentation are showing up together. Why leaning on consortium data and application data fraud signals is more important than relying on credit reports alone.How dealerships that barely exist are financing cars that were never actually delivered.Why business email compromise is still a top concern on the commercial banking side, and the stop call and confirm habit that stops it cold.Building a fraud prevention platform started with understanding the problem firsthand by moving into senior living communities. A fresh way to think about scam education as a behavior change problem, not just an awareness problem.Why check fraud trends remain a serious concern for community bank fraud programs, even as fraudsters increasingly bring AI targeted fraud attacks to smaller institutions.How law enforcement bank collaboration through IAFCI industry working groups is turning strangers into the people you call when a case needs to move fast.What's ahead for IAFCI itself, including new fraud policy and regulation partnerships and a membership goal of 10,000 by the end of the current term.You should listen to this episode if you:Work in auto lending, dealership finance, or first party fraud detection and want real, current examples of bust out fraud.Are on the commercial banking side and want a reminder of how effective stop call and confirm still is against business email compromise.Care about elder fraud prevention and want to hear how one approach was built from direct, in-person research.Lead fraud or risk at a community bank and want perspective on check fraud trends and AI targeted fraud attacks hitting smaller institutions.Believe law enforcement bank collaboration is underrated and want real examples of what that actually looks like in practice.Want a fast-moving, one-word-answer kind of episode that still leaves you with real, usable takeaways.
What’s up fraud fighters, and welcome back to Fraud Forward!This episode is another one that is unplugged, on the road, and recorded live at IAFCI International in Nashville. I am spending more time talking with the people who fight fraud from every angle. This time we talked about consumer fraud, identity theft, romance scams, account takeover on someone’s personal banking app, and the stuff that leads to the nightly news. But businesses get defrauded too, and when they do, it doesn’t just hit a balance sheet. It hits jobs, it hits communities, yet it barely hits the headlines.These conversations will hit on a lot, and we will cover one topic that maybe doesn’t get nearly the attention it deserves. B2B fraud. From business identity verification, synthetic business entities, the regulatory gaps opening up around beneficial ownership, and where AI is genuinely helping instead of just adding to the noise.Sit down, and let’s get into it with the fraud fighters sounding off on B2B fraud, synthetic entities, and everything AI is changing about the fight ahead.What you'll hear in this episode:Why B2B fraud gets a fraction of the attention consumer fraud does, even though the downstream impact on employees and communities can be just as severe.How synthetic business entities and beneficial ownership fraud are becoming easier to pull off, and why recent FinCEN ownership rule changes are widening that gap.A real example of business email compromise reaching its highest recorded volume in FinCEN's history, and how compromised business inbox markets let criminals study a company's own email patterns before striking.What abandoned identity fraud actually means, criminals exploiting the identities of babies, deceased individuals, and people who simply don't monitor their own credit.Why traditional banking fraud vulnerabilities, like slow-moving cross-border wire fraud, are getting overlooked while everyone's attention shifts to AI and crypto.A practical framework for proactive fraud detection, including fraud detection beyond login and why the real fight starts before someone ever reaches your app.How layered fraud detection stacks and agentic AI fraud tools are being used to catch AI-scaled attacks, including one financial institution that saw 250,000 fraudulent account signups in a matter of days.Why IAFCI conference collaboration, a shared conversation, a follow-up call, a number saved after one good conversation, is still one of the most effective fraud-fighting tools out there.You should listen to this episode if you:Work in business banking, commercial lending, or B2B fraud detection and want to hear this category taken seriously.Are responsible for business identity verification and want to understand how beneficial ownership fraud is shifting under new FinCEN rules.Have been affected by business email compromise or want to understand how compromised business inbox markets actually operate.Are building or evaluating layered fraud detection stacks and want real examples of agentic AI fraud tools in production.Believe fraud detection beyond login matters as much as anything happening inside your app.Want a genuine feel for why IAFCI conference collaboration keeps coming up as fraud fighters' biggest advantage.
What’s up fraud fighters, and welcome back to Fraud Forward!This episode is recorded live and unplugged on the conference floor at IAFCI International in Nashville. I couldn’t fit everything I loved into one tidy gathering. Instead I’m bringing you the open floor conversations that, for me, are helping to unravel fraud and are weaving together fraud fighters.The headliner here is Michael Perez, the first ever fraudster turned fraud fighter to appear on Fraud Forward. What happened in his story is what you’ll want to hear the most. Federal agents recognized he was more valuable teaching fraud prevention than sitting on the sidelines. Beyond Michael’s story is a walk around the conference floor with a retired FBI cyber crime agent turned author, a Postal Inspector on leveraging relationships, an NYPD detective on dismantling large scale fraud schemes tied to money laundering, and two South Carolina Department of Corrections investigators on the sophisticated financial crime investigations happening behind bars.What you’ll hear in this episode:Michael Perez's full story on how his card skimming operation worked, what led to his arrest, and how he's since built tools that help detect the exact fraud he used to commit.A retired FBI cyber crime agent's take on why nearly 90% of the financial fraud he investigated could have been prevented, and the cybersecurity training mindset he now teaches.How a Postal Inspector's small agency structure makes relationship-building and fraud conference collaboration a survival skill, not a nice-to-have.An NYPD detective's approach to dismantling large scale fraud schemes and money laundering investigation targets, plus a real elder fraud wellness check made possible entirely through IAFCI chapter connections.What South Carolina prison investigators are finding through prison financial crime investigations on contraband cell phones, including AI enabled fraud like deepfake documents and videos, plus peer-to-peer payment fraud tied to inmate financial fraud.Why IAFCI's law enforcement and bank collaboration model, letting each side sit in on the other's sessions, is something conference attendees keep pointing to as a genuine differentiator.The recurring themes across nearly every conversation of transnational fraud schemes operating at scale, and why the fraud fighter community, not any single tool or team, is still fraud fighters' biggest advantage.You should listen to this episode if you:Are a fraud, risk, or financial crimes professional who wants a real, one-the ground feel for what IAFCI conversations actually sound like.Are someone curious what a fraudster turned fraud fighter can teach the industry that a traditional investigator can’t.Are on a fraud team or a law enforcement investigator and looking for practical examples of bank enforcement and bank collaboration paying off.Are working adjacent to card skimming, prison financial crime investigations, or elder fraud and want real case examples.Are a fraud fighter, have felt isolated in your role, and want a reminder that the fraud fighting community changes what’s possible.
What’s up fraud fighters, and welcome back to Fraud Forward!This one is recorded live at SardineCon as a fireside chat. You’re getting the real, unscripted version of a conversation I had with Andrew Austin from Sardine and Arjun Ramakrishnan from GoDaddy. This one involves no rehearsed talking points. Just a conversation in front of a room full of people who live this work every day. Arjun brought the merchant and payments side. Andrew brought the fraud technology side. We sat down to talk about AI driven fraud, and how cheap and fast this has all become.AI is not introducing a new species of fraud. It’s the same things we have always fought. Everything from bust-out schemes, card testing, synthetic identities, to fake businesses. What’s changed is the speed, the scale, and the cost. That’s what we spend the next forty-five minutes unpacking.What you’ll hear:How AI-generated fraudulent websites and website cloning fraud have erased one of the oldest fraud indicators fraud teams relied on. We can no longer just rely on whether a business’s website looks legitimate.How bust-out fraud has scaled from two or three manually cultivated accounts to AI agents fraud rings running 30 or 40 synthetic accounts simultaneously.Why card testing attacks no longer follow predictable dollar amounts or velocity patterns, and what that means for payment fraud velocity patterns detection.The real tension fraud teams face balancing KYB friction vs fraud, and why adding more friction can push legitimate customers to a competitor.Why consortium data fraud detection and network-level fraud analysis matter more than ever when a single fraud ring can span dozens of seemingly unrelated accounts.How cost asymmetry in fraud is reshaping the entire fight, where attackers iterate for cents while defenders spend real dollars to respond.Why traditional fraud loss forecasting models are becoming unreliable in a world of constantly evolving agentic fraud attacks.What fraud team innovation strategy actually needs to look like going forward, including real-time fraud detection, fraud rule engine automation, and a genuine embrace of AI fraud cost barrier realities.You should listen to this episode if you:Work in merchant onboarding fraud risk, payments, or trust and safety and want a grounded, practitioner-level view of AI driven fraud.Are responsible for detecting synthetic identity fraud, card not present fraud, or bust-out fraud at a bank, fintech, or payments platform.Have ever had to defend a KYB friction vs fraud tradeoff to your sales or product team and want language to make that case better.Are evaluating consortium data fraud detection or network-level fraud analysis tools and want real-world context for why they matter now.Lead a fraud team trying to figure out where to actually invest given the AI fraud cost barrier attackers no longer face.Want a live conversation with real talk from people actively fighting this every day.