BFA #015 | Fraud is a Foreign Language

What's happening Fraud Fighters?

El fraude es un idioma extranjero. La fraude est une langue étrangère. La frode è una lingua straniera. Fraude is een vreemde taal. A fraude é uma língua estrangeira.

Unfortunately, I don’t speak many languages well and needed to rely on translators to help me out on that. But to save you the time of looking it up, fraud is a foreign language.

If you thought that was confusing, that’s how your stakeholders are thinking when you start getting deep into the nuances of the fraud world.

Let's investigate further.

Read Time: ~3.92 Minutes

Fraud is a Foreign Language

As I traveled through markets and narrow streets, I couldn't shake the feeling of being an outsider. All I could hear were the sounds of conversations in the local language, but their meaning remained elusive. I felt vulnerable, unable to understand the people talking around me, whether they were recommendations, directions, or even potential risks.

My attempts to communicate with locals were met with confusion and awkward smiles. Simple tasks, such as ordering food at a restaurant, turned into an ordeal, as I relied on pointing at menu items and hoping for the best. The language barrier made it difficult.

When it came to fraud, it became clear that many of my key stakeholders cared about very different things. So I worked hard to become fluent in marketing, finance, operations, and product.

To others, fraud is a foreign language.

Just like languages, fraud can be difficult to understand when an outsider is thrown right into the environment. A few reasons why:

Fraud is complex - Intricate schemes and tactics are challenging to grasp for those without a background in fraud. By the time they understand, fraudsters continuously adapt and evolve their methods. It’s almost impossible for stakeholders to keep up with the patterns and trends.

Different priorities - Each stakeholder has their own set of priorities and goals, which may not be clear how it relates to fraud. Why take the time to understand fraud if they feel like it won’t actually impact their work.

Nobody Likes Jargon - The language of fraud can be quite technical, with many specialized terms and concepts that may be unfamiliar to stakeholders from other departments. This can make it difficult for them to fully comprehend the implications of various types of fraud or the measures needed to combat them.

Limited exposure - Stakeholders may have limited exposure to fraud-related issues in their day-to-day responsibilities, making it difficult for them to recognize the full scope of the problem. They might not encounter cases of fraud firsthand or may not be aware of how their decisions can affect the company's vulnerability to fraud.

Siloed information - In many organizations, information is not shared effectively across departments (if at all…), leading to a lack of understanding of the overall impact of fraud on the business. Stakeholders can’t appreciate the significance of fraud prevention and detection efforts in the broader context of the user journey.

I’m certainly not a linguist, or professional translator, but I’ve found different ways to speak fraud in many languages.

Meet Them Where They’re At

The things I learned finance cared about

• How I could help in building a bottom up and top down financial projections

• That I had a strong handle on my budget. That way I could report back (and understood the importance) of further optimizations.

• That I understood the requirements for sustainable growth. Fraud is often seen by saving costs. With someone who will question every dollar spent against the company’s projected ROI and opportunity cost, I needed to bring clarity in helping increase margins - not cutting in.

The things I learned customer support cared about

• How I provide support and information to identify and resolve fraud-related communications. This can include creating guidelines and protocols for handling suspected fraud communications

• That I understood how spikes in fraudulent activity can cause extra work and how to help customer support respond to incidents quickly, minimizing the impact on affected customers.

The things I learned marketing cared about

• How I can remain adaptable to new risks as the brand grows. Marketing changes more than any other discipline to seek out innovation and scaling the brand.

• That I didn’t just come with bad news, but information. Minimize the financial losses and brand damage associated with fraud for a higher marketing ROI

Things things I learned product cared about

• How we kept the end user a priority and provide insights on potential fraud risks and help integrate user-friendly fraud prevention features into the product design, ensuring that security is an integral part of the user experience.

• That I understood the impact of friction on good users. Find ways to also implement unobtrusive fraud prevention measures to help maintain a seamless and enjoyable user experience without compromising security.

I could keep going with every stakeholder across the business. We all know fraud is present through the entire customer journey

Once you become fluent in all these languages, your life as a fraud fighter becomes a little easier. You can start to tailor your approach in meetings based on this knowledge to make it easier to work with fraud, which helps increase your influence.

This was a big unlock for me. While the people in the seats may change, the expectations and motivations tend to stay pretty stable.

Here’s your language cheatsheet:

What’s New This Week?

How to Become a Fraud Operations Leader: A Step-by-Step Guide

Fraud operations is a growing field with significant importance for businesses of all sizes. The role of a fraud operations leader is to implement strategies and protocols that prevent, detect and investigate fraud, as well as manage the personnel involved in those efforts. If you’re interested in becoming a fraud operations leader, this guide will provide you with a step-by-step approach to achieving this goal.

Looking for your next role?

In the past week, I’ve curated over 250 roles within fraud, trust, payments and risk in the past week. I source the jobs from job portals, newsletters, social media, communities and selected partners so you don’t have to.

Find your next job here

See you again next Friday in your inbox.

​Brian