Understanding the Criminals Behind the Fraud | We Fight Fraud

September 23 2024 Understanding the criminals behind the fraud. Dr. Nicola Harding, CEO of We Fight Fraud is uniquely placed to discuss the schemes of fraudsters today.

Her work with former criminals and law enforcement, means she offers some special insights on social engineering and contact centre fraud. We spoke to her at the Smartnumbers Consortium 2024 to find out what’s needed to combat fraudsters. Nicola Harding is a trained criminologist and CEO of We Fight Fraud, and here offers a compelling perspective on the need for collaboration in the fight against fraud.

As both an academic and a leader of an organisation that uniquely blends the expertise of former criminals and law enforcement professionals, Dr. Harding emphasised the importance of understanding fraud from multiple angles. Her goal at the event was to share this knowledge and explore ways to work together more effectively to combat fraud.

A key theme of her talk revolved around her claim that “data is the new oil.” In her work at We Fight Fraud, the organisation studies criminal behaviour closely to anticipate and counter fraud threats. By combining her academic background with the insights of former fraudsters and police, she is able to offer a multi-dimensional view of the fraud landscape.

She noted that the event provided an opportunity to share this knowledge with others in attendance, focusing on how this understanding of criminal methods could be applied in practical ways. One of the most pressing issues she discussed is the vulnerability of contact centres to fraud. According to Dr.

Harding, fraudsters are particularly drawn to contact centres because they provide a direct line of communication to an organisation. In an era when many transactions are automated, fraudsters avoid the typical “click-through” processes that online systems employ, instead targeting human operators whom they can socially engineer. By engaging with contact centre agents, fraudsters seek to extract critical information that can be used to commit fraud at a later time.

Through her work, Dr. Harding has seen firsthand how well or poorly organisations handle these threats. She described how good practices in call centres can shut down fraudsters quickly, while poor practices—such as an employee saying, “I shouldn’t really tell you this, but.

..”—open the door to exploitation.

It’s moments like these, she said, that fraudsters thrive on, as these minor lapses in judgement provide them with the exact information they need to compromise a system or account. Dr. Harding passionately emphasised the importance of collaboration in fighting fraud, echoing a message shared by other experts at the event, such as Lukasz Wodniok and Gareth Evans .

She underscored that fraudsters collaborate exceptionally well, often sharing information and techniques among themselves. To successfully combat these threats, companies must adopt a similar mindset, working together, sharing intelligence, and closing security gaps as a united front. Her final message was clear: combating fraud is not a battle to be fought in isolation.

Organisations, industries, and security experts must collaborate effectively to stay ahead of the increasingly sophisticated tactics used by fraudsters. Be sure to catch more videos from this series, right here . Dr.

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