BFA #013 | Leader shouldn't get their hands dirty

What's happening Fraud Fighters?

Investigating is something I know and understand. So as a new fraud leader who wants to make the biggest impact with the smallest costs, I knew I could build something long lasting if I could invest a little bit of my time.

Let's investigate further.

Read Time: ~4.1 Minutes

Investigating is Your Backbone

You’ve survived your first few weeks on the job as a new fraud leader without getting fired! Now that is behind you it’s time for your next priority: setting the fraud strategy and direction.

For me it’s the backbone of building a scalable fraud program.

Fraud is something you can track - for the most part anyway. You might not have all the data you want, but you have access to enough data to deliver high value.

I highly recommend to any new fraud leader to get involved with the investigation process. It teaches you so much of what users and fraud look like, what data your team is using, and how to make effective decisions.

Honestly, this can be humbling for someone who has been out of the queues for a while - or has never been in the queue to begin with. A fraud leader lacking front-line experience may face several challenges when building their fraud strategy. These hurdles can cripple the effectiveness of the entire fraud strategy.

I could go on and on about the hurdles but here are my top three biggest challenges to a new fraud leader in this situation:

• Lack of practical experience: A fraud leader without front-line investigation experience may not have a deep understanding of the day-to-day realities of investigating fraud cases.

• Limited understanding of investigation techniques: A fraud leader without hands-on experience might lack knowledge of specific investigation techniques and tools, making it difficult to guide their team effectively or allocate resources efficiently.

• Identifying subtle red flags: A leader without hands-on investigation experience might struggle to recognize subtle or non-obvious indicators of fraud.

Any leader that’s too good to get back into the queue is a red flag for me. Leaders need to be ready to get their hands dirty to overcome those challenges.

Dirty Hands Advantage

Getting down and dirty in the fraud strategy gave me the insights I needed as a fraud leader to understand what different types of fraud and abuse looked like to our unique business.

As a fraud fighter myself, I felt like I knew the investigation process. Although, you should always do your research. I’ve never been able to transition my learnings from one company to another company 100%. Don’t assume you know what fraud looks like without evidence. That’s a recipe for a fraud disaster.

I really needed to get into this level of detail and insight to really be confident in my plan moving forwards.

I also overhauled our process for how we go about investigating new cases such as

• How we decide on what to work on next

• What data we included in our investigations

• How we used that data in making decisions

• How to get the data we needed faster

• How we promoted our work as a function

I wanted us to be a brain. Using the clues around us to make confident decisions that could drive our fraud program, rather than blindly doing what we were asked to do by the “newest” fraud expert - suddenly everyone is an expert on fraud.

Any first-time (really any time) fraud leader will need to plan for the minimal resources they have. You don’t need to be overly clever, but it does take a little more planning

As I’ve said before, our budget was small if existing at all. We didn’t spend a lot on the fraud program in the early days. But I did learn how to slowly invest more time, effort, and money based on where we saw results and uncovered gaps. It took time to get buy in but persistence through consistent data backed storytelling paid off.

Unfortunately, none of us have a crystal ball. Where are you going to place your bets? How do you balance long and short term gains?

Your cheat code is getting as close to the front line as possible and getting your hands dirty. As a fraud leader, getting directly involved in investigations can be highly beneficial for you, your team, and the organization.

So you took the chance of being vulnerable with your rusty skills, rolled up your sleeves, and took down a few fraudsters. What can you do to take your learnings from the queue and build it back into your fraud strategy?

• Identify patterns and trends: Analyze the cases you've investigated to identify common patterns, trends, and tactics used by fraudsters. Update your fraud strategy to address these specific threats and incorporate new prevention and detection measures as needed.

• Assess current controls: Evaluate the effectiveness of your current fraud prevention and detection controls and processes based on your findings from your own investigations. Identify any gaps or weaknesses and adjust your strategy to strengthen these areas.

• Share knowledge with your team: Communicate your insights and experiences with your team members to help them understand the challenges and complexities of real-life fraud cases. This will improve their ability to recognize and respond to potential threats.

• Update training programs: Use your hands-on experience to develop more targeted and relevant training programs for your team. Incorporate real-world examples, case studies, and lessons learned from your investigations to make the training more engaging and effective.

• Enhance collaboration: Encourage open communication and collaboration within your team and across the organization to share insights, best practices, and lessons learned from investigations. Foster a culture of continuous learning and improvement.

• Adapt to emerging threats: Stay current with new and evolving fraud trends by seeing and understanding them live with your own eyes. Update your fraud strategy regularly to ensure it remains effective in addressing the latest threats.

• Review and revise policies and procedures: Based on your findings, review and revise your organization's fraud policies and procedures to make sure they are aligned with current best practices.

• Monitor performance metrics: Track key performance indicators (KPIs) related to your fraud prevention and detection efforts. Use your hands-on experience to set realistic goals and benchmarks and regularly evaluate your team's performance against these targets.

• Foster innovation: Encourage your team to experiment with new tools, techniques, and approaches to fraud prevention and detection. Make sure they feel comfortable coming back with their own learnings to teach the rest of the team.

• Continuously improve: Regularly review and assess your fraud strategy's effectiveness, incorporating lessons learned from your investigations and ongoing industry developments.

Getting your hands dirty can go a long way.

What’s New This Week?

Since launching that fraud Job board last week, I’ve wrangled over 200 open roles. I’ve taken a lot of feedback from our community over the last week, made a couple small tweaks, and created that fraud Talent Pool. Share it with a friend who may be looking for their next opportunity.

Recently, a few companies have come to me in hoping to gain access to my network and help them find fraud fighters I’d vouch for. If you want to join our network of vetted fraud fighters, you can here.

Your information will not be sent to companies without your consent. The information you provide will only be viewed internally by that fraud for the purposes of identifying relevant potential opportunities for you.

Looking for some new content? I’ve been tracking fraud solution provider updates casually for years, so I figured I’d start to source and share different vendor’s updates and release notes as I come across them.

See you again next Friday in your inbox.

​Brian