In this world, there is an army of fraud fighters that have the true calling.   They eat, sleep and breathe fraud prevention.  It might sound strange, but their drive to fight fraud is so pervasive that it becomes a passion and not just a job.    When they clock into work each day time flies by and they can’t believe when the work day is done.

They love their job so much it doesn’t even seem like work to them. Do you think this is you?  Do you fit this type of maniac persona?

Here are 7 tale tell signs that you got the fraud fighter itch and you are a true fraud fighter.

#1 Tell Tale Sign – You’d Do Your Job For Free if Asked

When I was 24, I was working as a Customer Service Representative for a bank.  I would answer phones from 5am to 2pm everyday.  It was just dreadful.

I absolutely hated that job more than any other job I had.  One day there was a posting in the lunch room for a job in the fraud department that the company was looking to fill.  I loved the title of that job – Fraud Analyst.    They were looking for an entry level person to look at credit card transactions to spot fraud and then call customers to verify if the activity was valid.

It looked like the perfect job for me.  I loved catching people that were trying to steal from the bank.

The next week I went to the interview and I told the hiring manager.  “I will work for free for 6 months if you give me this job. If it doesn’t work out than fire me and you haven’t lost anything!”.  Well it worked because SHE HIRED ME on the spot.  And I loved that job more than anything I had ever done in my entire life.  I was hooked for life.

Would you do the same?  Would you work for free fighting fraud if you needed to? If you would, you’ve got the fraud fighter itch.

#2 Tale Tell Sign – You Got That Spidey Sense

FraudFighter’s have suspicious minds.  They do not accept anything as truth at face value.  They look at the big picture and than subconsciously make millions of calculations in their minds to determine if something is fishy.   If something does not add up, they get that funny look on their face. Their hair immediately stands up on on their neck or their arms.

When that happens, their intuition kicks into gear and they are on the case.

I can’t tell you how many times I have shown a great fraud analyst an application or some transaction activity and 10 seconds later they are saying, “Oh No.. This ain’t right”.

How do they do it?  How do they instantly know that something is wrong.  I call it Spidey Sense.  They can just sniff out a fraud a million miles away. And it’s a God given gift that not many people have.

Do you have Spidey Sense?  If you do, its the second tell tale sign you are a Fraud Fighter!

# 3 Tell Tale Sign – You Get That Inner Rage When Someone is Scammed

Do you take it personally when you see someone victimized by fraud?  Does it make your blood boil to see a scammer steal from an elderly person?

Do you find yourself wanting to find the fraudster and bring them to justice?  To make them pay for their crimes?  Or at the very least make them change their evil ways after you teach them a lesson?

Not every one cares about fraud the way you do.  But that’s what makes you great at your job. If you get that inner rage when you see a fraud, that’s another sure sign you are a true fraud fighter.

#4 Tell Tale Sign  – You See Fraud Patterns Others Do Not See

Pattern Recognition is the fastest growing and most successful technology used to fight fraud.  But do you realize that the approach is based on precisely what fraud fighters do every day?

FraudFighters see patterns in data that others cannot see.  You can call it an extraordinary gift, or a result of tons of experience – but they can see patterns in data and transactions that are not visible to most people.

I have seen analyst look at a pattern of credit card behavior and instantaneously see a pattern of suspicious activity that was nearly invisible.    Not everyone has this.  Actually very few people can do it.  If you have this gift, thats just one more sign you are a true fraud fighter.

#5 Tell Tale Sign  – You Can’t Stop Talking About Fraud

Do you go home and go on and on about fraud cases you worked on that day with your partner?  Do you go to a work dinner and talk about fraud to all of your co-workers and not actually talk about anything personal?

When you go to lunch, do you talk about anything besides fraud?  Are you starting to annoy people because FRAUD IS ALL YOU TALK ABOUT EVERYDAY?

If so, then there is yet another sign that you are a true fraud fighter.  Don’t worry, there are lots of other fraud fighters that would love to go on and on with you.

#6 Tell Tale Sign –  You Wake Up Thinking About A Case, or You Think About Fraud in the Shower

Is your mind always on the go?  Always trying to figure out how to build a better strategy with lower false positives?  Always thinking about a new model that can be built to detect more fraud?  Always thinking about new technologies that can be deployed to stop it?

Do you dream about fraud and then wake up with new ideas on how to solve it?  Or better yet, rather than sing in the shower you’re thinking of new patents or inventions you could build to stop fraud?

If so, thats yet another sign you are a true fraud fighter!

#7 Tell Tale Sign – You Want to Change the World and Help People

At the end of the day it’s one thing that drives you.  It’s what makes you wake up in the morning, eating breathing and thinking about fraud all day long.

In the end, you just want to help people.

You want to stop people from being victimized by bad guys.

You want to help your employer reduce their losses.

You want to choke off the money supply of terrorist, organized criminals and traffickers that use the illicit money to cause other people pain.

If you can stop one elderly person, or disabled person from being victimized it makes it all worth while.

If you can save somebody from wiring out their life savings to an evil scammer, you feel good.

If you can help one person, your work is done.

You fight fraud because it makes the world a better place.  If that rings true, my friend, you are a true fraud fighter.

Congratulations and thank you for the work you do and thanks for reading the blog.