WHAT DOES A FRAUD ANALYST DO?

Published: Apr 10, 2025 – The Fraud Analyst develops and maintains anti-fraud strategies to ensure over 95% transaction acceptance while keeping chargebacks under 0.5%. This position monitors payment gateway activities, analyzes suspicious behavior, and implements rules to detect and prevent fraud across all channels. The analyst also creates automated reports, dashboards, and alerts to track trends, optimize fraud rules, and minimize transaction rejections.

A Review of Professional Skills and Functions for Fraud Analyst

1. Fraud Analyst Job Description

  • Fraud Investigation: Utilize the best judgment along with internal and external sources to investigate orders
  • Fraud Monitoring: Monitor live orders to identify fraud patterns
  • Reporting: Prepare reports for senior management
  • Risk Communication: Highlight key suspicious items to the payment and risk teams
  • Refund Processing: Validate, execute, and track non-standard refunds
  • KPI Reporting: Request, prepare, and distribute daily KPIs
  • Documentation: Document procedures taken related to the fraud review, refund process, and chargeback disputes
  • Fraud Handling: Handle all types of fraud across the platform, review individual accounts, as well as identify patterns and fraud rings
  • Fraud Detection: Detect and evaluate new fraud patterns and work on controls to mitigate the risk long-term
  • Process Improvement: Improve and automate operational processes
  • Stakeholder Support: Address fraud inquiries from banking partners, acquirers, customers, etc.

2. Fraud Analyst Overview

  • Queue Monitoring: Monitoring real-time queues and identifying high-risk transactions within the business portfolio
  • Fraud Case Management: Managing potential fraud cases that are referred by Risk Management tools
  • Alert Analysis: Analyzing and working on alerts reported by the Schemes
  • Data Reporting: Providing KPI, system performance, and other analytical data to Management and clients
  • Rule Development: Rule development for Fraud monitoring systems
  • System Control: System performance control and improvements
  • Compliance Analysis: Analysis and implementation of the International schemes requirements for the job area
  • Client Interaction: Interacting with clients on various questions related to the Fraud Detection area
  • System Improvement: Identifying system improvements to prevent fraudulent activities
  • Project Assistance: Assisting in any project activity related to a new system or enhancement of existing functionalities (i.e., testing)

3. Fraud Analyst Additional Details

  • Fraud Analysis: Review and analyze online transactions to identify any potential fraudulent activity
  • Fraud Management: Maintain and manage acceptable fraud loss rates and customer satisfaction
  • Tool Management: Manage fraud detection tools while creating rules and analyzing fraud patterns
  • Machine Learning Support: Help improve Machine Learning accuracy and efficiency
  • Customer Support: Provide advice and support on fraud and payment-related matters to Customer Services
  • Risk Mitigation: Propose solutions to minimize the risk of fraud
  • Dispute Resolution: Review and defend all the customer payment disputes (fraudulent or non-fraudulent ones)
  • Retrieval Management: Retrieval request management
  • Team Collaboration: Actively collaborate with colleagues and learn from each other in a supportive environment that allows you to grow, develop, and make a difference
  • Data Support: Support in providing information and data, as well as response time
  • Advisory Feedback: Provide feedback on post-event advisories to both internal/external customers and/or internal stakeholders
  • Project Participation: Participate in Fraud Surveillance projects

4. Fraud Analyst Essential Functions

  • Fraud Monitoring: Resolve member issues and constantly monitor member and transactional records to identify unauthorized transactions and fraudulent accounts
  • Model Maintenance: Maintain fraud analysis models to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of company systems
  • Fraud Investigation: Investigate successful and unsuccessful fraud attempts
  • Confidentiality Assurance: Ensure the confidentiality of all information collected during the investigation
  • Trend Analysis: Identify fraud trends by analyzing accounts and transaction patterns, and develop system improvements to prevent fraudulent activities
  • Process Recommendation: Recommend anti-fraud processes for changing transaction patterns and trends
  • Fraud Type Monitoring: Monitor accounts for elder fraud, new account fraud, deposit fraud, loan fraud, check fraud, and account takeover fraud
  • Fraud Response: Take appropriate action when fraud is observed to prevent further loss to the Credit Union or member
  • Suspicious Activity Review: Assist in the monitoring of account activity for suspicious patterns and activity, and recommend when to file Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs)
  • Internal Communication: Assume responsibility for establishing and maintaining effective communication and coordination with credit union staff and management
  • Staff Support: Assist credit union staff
  • Management Reporting: Keep management informed of department activities and any significant problems or concerns

5. Fraud Analyst General Responsibilities

  • Fraud Monitoring: Monitors customer account activity for potentially fraudulent activity, investigates, and resolves anomalous activity
  • Program Support: Supports the performance of the day-to-day functions of the Association Fraud Risk Management program
  • Investigation Documentation: Assists in documenting the Association’s fraud investigations and recommends follow-up actions
  • Case Mitigation: Gathers information and documentation required to mitigate and remediate fraud cases
  • Trend Analysis: Analyzes fraud cases to identify possible trends and points of compromise
  • Rule Creation: Contribute to the creation of anti-fraud rules by providing analytical data to support decisions
  • Suspicious Activity Evaluation: Evaluates and escalates matters containing suspicious activity, suspected/confirmed fraud, and related events and activity
  • Knowledge Maintenance: Maintains up-to-date knowledge of fraud risk management, technology, investigative practices, emerging regulations, industry trends, and best practices
  • Fraud/AML Enhancement: Improves and enhances fraud and AML/CTF detection and minimization
  • SQL Development: Develops complex SQL statements to detect fraud/AML transaction patterns
  • System Analysis: Ongoing analysis of the performance of fraud systems
  • Rule Review: Develops new and reviews existing transaction monitoring rules
  • Data Insight: Derives insights from analyzing complex datasets and databases

6. Fraud Analyst Key Accountabilities

  • Fraud Reporting: Produce accurate and relevant fraud MI for management and the wider business
  • Fraud Detection: Detect and understand emerging fraudulent activity
  • Fraud Engine Configuration: Configure the internal fraud engine to manage fraud risk within the risk appetite parameters
  • Fraud Tool Analysis: Provide analysis to support the development and maintenance of fraud tools and defences
  • Scorecard Management: Devise and maintain fraud decision scorecards to allow accurate and efficient upfront decision-making
  • Strategy Development: Drive forward the fraud and risk strategies for new services to enhance fraud prevention with minimal customer friction
  • Model Development: Develop and maintain analytical models across payment vendors to understand the chargeback environment
  • Alert Investigation: Handle fraud alerts generated by the surveillance unit and conduct an investigation
  • Parameter Input: Provide inputs on parameters and modelling thresholds
  • Account Review: Review and investigate fraud activity on accounts to assess risk and take appropriate action, such as restricting the account
  • Case Review: Review cases in real time or on generated reports
  • Process Auditing: Audit fraud processes to determine accuracy and compliance with SOP/Policy
  • Customer Verification: Outbound calls to customers to verify activity or obtain additional information

7. Fraud Analyst Roles and Details

  • Fraud Tool Monitoring: Monitor automated fraud screening tools
  • Booking Analysis: Review and analysis of Card-Not-Present bookings to identify unusual and high-risk activity
  • Fraudulent Booking Identification: Identify fraudulent bookings and liaise with Airport Operations
  • Trend Analysis: Trend analysis and development of risk control measures
  • Regulatory Compliance: Deal with all external bodies accurately and efficiently, having full regard for current regulations and legislation
  • Chargeback Support: Assist Chargeback Dept with defence case documentation
  • Reporting: Preparation of a daily handover report
  • Ad-hoc Task Management: Take responsibility for ad-hoc duties and projects
  • Transaction Analysis: Analyse and monitor all transactions related to Money Transactions, Balance Transfer, Bill Payment, and identify the abnormalities that lead to fraudulent behaviour
  • Pattern Development: Create and update detection patterns in the Fraud Management System
  • Data Monitoring: Make sure that the required data sources are being monitored
  • Alarm Handling: Support for analysing FMS alarms and closing within TAT

8. Fraud Analyst Responsibilities and Key Tasks

  • Business Analysis: Independently conduct strong business analysis and build analytical models to identify any potential fraudulent activity and effectively scale processes accordingly
  • Technical Mentorship: Be a coach and mentor to others on technical tools, and leverage technical expertise to maintain and manage acceptable fraud loss rates and customer satisfaction
  • Tool Management: Scale and manage fraud detection tools, while creating rules and being a key contributor to accurate machine learning solutions
  • Product Advocacy: Identify and advocate for product changes and their prioritization
  • Fraud Advisory: Provide advice and guidance on fraud and payment-related matters to the team and wider business
  • Solution Strategy: Strategically propose solutions through impact analysis to minimize the risk of fraud, package findings in actionable solutions, and guide the cross-functional team toward project completion
  • Dashboard Development: Define, design, and build real-time dashboards to provide visibility to the wider business
  • Project Leadership: Build a framework and lead complex projects and initiatives, tackling specific fraud issues independently with senior stakeholder engagement
  • Process Experimentation: Experiment with and A/B different automations and processes to check the impact
  • Strategy Execution: Manage end-to-end projects to develop strategy, build consensus across cross-functional stakeholders, and implement recommendations
  • Team Collaboration: Actively collaborate with colleagues and learn from each other in a supportive environment

9. Fraud Analyst Roles and Responsibilities

  • Strategy Design: Design and implement strategies to ensure over 95% of payment transactions are accepted while fraud is prevented, and chargebacks are controlled at below 0.5% of transactions
  • Rule Implementation: Design, implement, and maintain acceptance and anti-fraud rules in the payment gateway ecosystem for each channel/MID (Merchant ID) within each market
  • Process Optimization: Review the end-to-end process along e-commerce payment channels and implement/recommend process steps, controls, system rules, and best practices to reduce risks and improve acceptance levels
  • Chargeback Automation: Automate the chargeback upload process and monitoring across channels
  • Rejection Reduction: Identify opportunities to decrease rejections without compromising fraud levels
  • Threat Monitoring: Join payment communities and training sessions to be up to date on e-commerce fraud threats and trends, and monitor for emerging threats
  • Transaction Analysis: Effectiveness of rules and Payment gateway transactions daily, e.g., acceptance and rejection of digital payment transactions
  • Fraud Activity Monitoring: Monitor suspicious fraud activities at the payment gateway ecosystem
  • Chargeback Monitoring: Monitor chargeback levels and drill down on root causes
  • Anomaly Detection: Monitor transactions and reconciliations to detect anomalies that could lead to fraud
  • Reporting: Prepare reports on levels of rejection and acceptance of transactions and the effectiveness of rules at a regular frequency
  • Dashboard Management: Create and maintain reports, alarms, dashboards, and trend monitoring to detect anomalies and anticipate challenges and issues
  • Chargeback Framework: Create a framework/best practices to manage chargebacks, maintain whitelists