WHAT DOES A FRAUD DO?
Published: Jun 12, 2025 - The Fraud Professional conducts comprehensive investigations to identify, analyze, and prevent fraudulent activities across multiple financial platforms. This role involves implementing advanced fraud detection tools and compliance measures to safeguard organizational assets and client trust. The position also collaborates with cross-functional teams to ensure the integrity of internal controls and the continuous improvement of risk mitigation strategies.
A Review of Professional Skills and Functions for Fraud
1. Fraud Analyst Responsibilities and Key Tasks
- Fraud Detection: Pioneer new techniques to detect and counter bad actors who are constantly adapting and discovering new ways to abuse our platform.
- Process Scaling: Scale new and existing fraud detection and prevention processes to decrease operational risks.
- Process Improvement: Identify operational and product weaknesses and help improve or innovate new processes.
- Cross-Functional Coordination: Work with the Fraud Manager to coordinate with members of the Product, Operations, and Compliance Teams to measure the impact and efficiency of new and existing rules, processes, and policies.
- Data-Driven UX: Suggest and execute the required changes to improve the user experience based on data.
- Data Analysis: Analyze large sets of data in the context of all known or emerging fraudulent patterns to inform important strategic decisions, design and implement processes that improve fraud detection and prevention.
- Strategic Prioritization: Understand individual market needs while considering a holistic direction to choose which projects the team should prioritize to optimize business impact.
- Reporting and Metrics: Build, maintain, and communicate detailed reporting models to track and inform risk metrics and specific actions that have taken place.
- Stakeholder Support: Provide support for escalations, questions, and fraud-related inbounds.
2. Fraud Investigator Roles and Details
- Fraud Investigation: Manages and investigates potential fraud and dispute cases
- Risk Assessment: High-risk reviews real-time applications for potential fraud risk.
- Claims Review: Reviews cases to determine the legitimacy of the claim and challenges cardholders where appropriate.
- Pattern Analysis: Analyzes information to look for commonalities and trending relationships among fraud cases.
- Cardholder Verification: Conducts outbound calls with cardholders to verify the validity of transaction activity.
- Team Communication: Communicates with other Analysts and Managers regarding possible fraud trends detected or suspected.
- Loss Prevention: Thoroughly completes assigned work to minimize any monetary loss to the company.
- Customer Support: Responds to cardholder requests for information about the status of their dispute/fraud claim as it progresses through the case lifecycle.
- Case Processing: Effectively analyzes and processes fraud/dispute cases while ensuring all internal service levels are met
- Documentation Handling: Processes system-generated retrieval requests, ordering cardholder-initiated supporting documentation
3. Senior Fraud Investigator Job Description
- Fraud Investigation: Investigate internal and external fraud-related issues committed against the Bank, including employee embezzlement, check fraud, and new account fraud.
- Case Management: Create and retain case management records for all investigations.
- Law Enforcement Coordination: Coordinate investigations with appropriate law enforcement officials.
- Legal Representation: Represent the Bank in signing Hold Harmless agreements, police reports, subpoena responses, and attending court to testify on cases.
- Team Oversight: Oversee daily investigation activities of the investigation team.
- Case Prioritization: Make decisions on the prioritization of cases, case allocation, and determine the level of sensitivity required.
- Quality Control: Perform QC on fraud investigator cases and SARs and carry final authority on case quality adequacy and SAR determination.
- Advisory Support: Become a trusted advisor to the business.
- Risk Mitigation: Provide recommendations to mitigate future risk, based on findings and outcomes as a result of investigative work.
- Risk Partnership: Partner with ORM Issue Management and the 1st Line of Defense to create mitigation and remediation plans.
- Procedure Development: Develop and implement procedures for investigations, law enforcement engagement, and insider threats management.
- Standards Compliance: Responsible for ensuring the Company's investigation processes meet or exceed industry standards by regularly evaluating the Company's procedures against industry practices.
- Law Enforcement Networking: Develop extensive law enforcement relationships across the market and leverage that network to enhance the Bank's ability to recover losses and press charges on suspected criminals.
4. Fraud Manager Key Accountabilities
- Fraud Prevention: Proactively identify and investigate instances of fraud activities related to the debit and credit card portfolio and digital payment transactions, and implement and continuously analyze and implement fraud prevention rules to mitigate the risk of financial exposures without affecting transaction authorisation rates.
- Fraud Rule Analysis: Contribute to the creation, analysis, and modification of fraud rules by providing analytical data to reduce the risk of customers' and banks' financial exposures while improving authorisation rates.
- Alert Monitoring: Monitor debit and credit card fraud alerts daily and take necessary action to protect customers and the Bank.
- Pattern Recognition: Identify fraud patterns through the monitoring of high-risk claims that are received through the Reg E Unit, high-risk countries, and merchants.
- Alert Response: Review all alerts from external sources, including MasterCard Fraud Center, FIS, etc., and ensure that appropriate actions are taken to mitigate fraud.
- Customer Validation: Validate alerts through outbound calls to Customers.
- Case Documentation: Accurately document all actions taken on a case.
- Fraud Support: Provide support to the Operational and Business units of the organization on fraud-related matters.
- Reporting Support: Contribute to the preparation and delivery of reports for the Bank’s Management.
- Industry Awareness: Responsible for maintaining knowledge of the fraud situation in the industry.
- Risk Reporting: Report risk information and findings to the immediate supervisor on time.
- Action Planning: Based on analysis, develops reports, proposals for action, or implementation plans, and presents to management.
- Project Implementation: Participates in and may lead the implementation of special projects.
- Analytical Response: Apply operational business sense and advanced analytical skills to respond to ad-hoc requests.
5. Fraud Officer Duties and Roles
- Case Processing: Processing of all cases and referral to the fraud operational area.
- Application Review: Elements of underwriting, desktop investigation, and review of application, accounts, and third-party data.
- Time Management: Ensure that all relevant cases are completed within timescales.
- Verification Checks: Undertake relevant checks directly with customers, across Virgin Media O2 departments, and with any external Agencies.
- Issue Escalation: Refer any unusual, especially complex, or GAP issues to our fraud specialist team.
- Fraud Advisory: Respond to requests for advice and guidance relating to fraud prevention from within Virgin Media O2.
6. Fraud Investigation Specialist General Responsibilities
- Queue Monitoring: Monitor various fraud queues to make approve/decline decisions.
- Transaction Research: Research transactions using internal and third-party resources to identify legitimate customers.
- Customer Verification: Communicate with consumers to verify information.
- Information Gathering: Communicate with warehouses and shippers to get additional information or compile evidence.
- Chargeback Handling: Review chargeback queues and take appropriate action.
- Fraud Pattern Detection: Identify fraud rings and new fraud modus operandi to improve the fraud rules.
- Team Collaboration: Work as part of a team to achieve the service level goals by responding to inquiries promptly.
- Experience Improvement: Continuously seek and recommend improvements in the consumer experience.
- Compliance Management: Maintain compliance and security requirements when handling customer information.