What's up fraud fighters and welcome back to Fraud Forward!

I just got home from Las Vegas at four in the morning on Friday after starting the week in Washington DC. I am home for exactly two more sleeps before I turn around and leave again. Today there is no guest. It is just me, my microphone, and a notebook full of things to talk about.

I started the week at HHS then I flew from DC to Vegas for ACAMS The Assembly. Two completely different rooms. Yet I kept writing down versions of the same thing. Culture. Data. Accountability. Collaboration. Speed. Technology.

And then one sentence from Washington ended up framing the entire week for me. Fraud follows money. That is how this episode starts and that is how it ends. Where the money goes, fraud follows. When the money changes, fraud changes. When the way we move money gets faster, fraud gets faster. When we create a new product, somebody figures out how to exploit it. When we close one vulnerability, they find another.

That is fraud driven flows in practice. And if you pay attention to where the money is going next, you will have a much better picture of where the fraud is going.

• Why fraud driven flows connects real-time payments fraud, stablecoin fraud risks, and check fraud in the digital age into one through line
• Government fraud program banking parallels that reframe how we think about audit accountability and corrective action
• Why fraud prevention stewardship and the line a dollar saved is worth more than a dollar recovered should change how we talk to leadership
• How fraud program culture functions as a control and why fraud incentive misalignment quietly defeats everything else we build
• What ACAMS Assembly 2026 insights on real-time payments fraud and stablecoin financial crime risks mean for fraud risk beyond organizational boundary
• Why fraud technology before problem definition is still one of the most expensive mistakes in fraud programs and what AI fraud results measurement should actually look like
• How fraud program single point of failure is a fraud risk hiding inside a staffing conversation
• Why fraud collaboration operationalized looks nothing like fraud collaboration discussed

• Lead a fraud program and have ever felt like you are having the same conversation in completely different rooms
• Are trying to figure out how to measure fraud prevention value and tell a better story to leadership
• Care about fraud program culture and want to hear why it functions as a control, not a soft concept
• Have ever bought technology before understanding the problem you were trying to solve
• Are dealing with fraud knowledge retention risk because one person on your team knows everything and you are not sure what happens when they leave

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.

• How to build a fraud program assessment when you walk into an organization that has been struggling and nobody can tell you why
• Why fraud and risk management starts with people, process, technology, and data in that order, and why most organizations start with technology and create more problems
• The 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 does
• Why fraud team structure matters before you can optimize anything, and how to answer the centralized versus decentralized question before you start hiring or buying
• The 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 risk
• Why 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 demo
• How 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 approach
• The scam intervention banking framework I used as a practitioner, including targeted friction, cooling off periods, and the phrase I call my mic drop moment
• How I approach fraud executive communication and fraud program advocacy when leadership sees losses on a dashboard and misses the fifteen million the team prevented
• The fraud dashboard reporting model I want to see: attempted fraud, prevented fraud, actual loss, normalized against transaction volume or deposits, not just gross fraud losses
• Why human in the loop fraud AI is not scalable and what human on the loop means for fraud team skill development right now
• Where 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 for

• 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 practitioner
• Have 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 data
• Work 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 stack
• Want 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 listen
• Are trying to figure out where AI fits in your fraud program without losing the investigators you have spent years developing
• Lead a fraud team and want to know where fraud program maturity actually stands based on the benchmarking work I have been doing across financial institutions
• Have 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.

• 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.

• 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.