Fraud Forward: Where we’ve been, what I’m building, and what’s next

What’s up fraud fighters, and welcome to Fraud Forward! This episode is just me and you, and honestly, that felt right. Fraud Forward has always been about real conversations, but every once in a while, I think it matters to pause, zoom out, and talk peer to peer about where we’ve been, what I’ve been building, and where this work is going next. No guests. No panel. No polished back-and-forth. Just a real check-in on fraud prevention in banking and the decisions that are shaping what comes next.

This episode matters because the questions in front of us are getting bigger, not smaller. We are no longer just talking about fraud trends in isolation. We are talking about AI in banking, payment authorization, customer dispute resolution in banks, real-time decisioning, and the governance problems sitting underneath all of it. If you work in fraud, risk, payments, compliance, or digital banking, you already know this is not a future-state conversation. It is here now.

And that is really the core of this episode. Fraud prevention in banking is no longer just about identifying bad activity after the fact. It is about whether institutions can make better decisions earlier, with better context, better governance, and better alignment across teams. That is the shift. That is what I have been hearing in conference hallways, seeing in operator conversations, and building toward behind the scenes.

I also wanted to make this episode personal because that matters too. I have sat in the practitioner seat. I know what it feels like to defend fraud losses in a boardroom, to get asked how your institution compares to peers, to explain why a rule fired, and to carry the pressure of making the right call with incomplete information. So when I talk about AI agents in banking, banking fraud detection, or responsible AI in banking, I am not talking from a distance. I am talking from the perspective of somebody who knows what it feels like when the operational reality hits the fraud desk first.

Here is what that shift means in practice:

• We need to stop treating fraud as only a detection problem and start treating it as a governance and decisioning problem.
• We need better ways to evaluate customer authorization fraud, disputes, and real-time transaction risk before losses harden.
• We need clearer operator-level benchmarking so banks and credit unions can advocate for resources with facts, not guesswork.
• We need stronger collaboration across fraud, compliance, product, operations, and leadership because no one team can solve this alone.

What you’ll hear in this episode:

• A look back at the biggest themes from recent Fraud Forward conversations, including AI, KYC, payment fraud, and systems-level risk.
• What I have been building behind the scenes to support fraud fighters with clearer signals, faster context, and more practical guidance.
• Why benchmarking has become one of the most important gaps to solve for community banks and credit unions.
• What I am seeing across conferences, operator conversations, and industry events right now.
• My take on why scams, chargebacks, first-party fraud, and regulation are all colliding in ways the industry can no longer ignore.

You should listen to this episode if you:

• Work in fraud prevention in banking and need a clearer view of where the industry is heading
• Want a peer-level perspective on AI in banking, governance, and transaction risk
• Are trying to connect fraud operations to executive conversations about budget, staffing, and strategy
• Need stronger language and better framing around customer dispute resolution in banks and customer authorization fraud
• Care about building fraud programs that are more proactive, more defensible, and more useful to the institution

If you liked this episode, be sure to subscribe and review the podcast on iTunes, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you listen to podcasts. It really helps with getting the word out.