The 11 Types of Fraud Analyst You Meet

Frank McKenna

February 23, 2022

In my travels, I have met with thousands of fraud analysts across the world. I can honestly say, they are some of the most interesting people that I have ever met.

Do you work in a fraud department? What do you think of some of the personality types and characters you meet at work?

Well, here is my take on the 11 Types of Fraud Analyst You Will Meet. These are based on real people I have met but their personality types are so common that I find these same traits in other fraud analyst in almost every place I go.

#1 – Suspicious Samantha – Everything is Fraud

Suspicious Samantha thinks every case in the queue is fraud. She trusts no one and will block every account. She’s not always right, but she never misses a fraud. Fraud Managers love her because she stops all the fraud. Suspicious Samantha doesn’t miss a thing.

#2 – Magazine Matt – He Keeps A Low Profile

In just about every bank, I run into Magazine Matt. Magazine Matt puts on his headset and likes to log into the inbound call queue.

He spends his day taking as few calls as he can, turns his phone on busy between calls to notate accounts, and leisurely reads his magazine. It’s no wonder his stats suck. Whenever you pass by Magazine Matt, he’s always reading his damn magazines.

#3 – Chatty Katy – She Could Go On and On

She could go on and on and often does. Chatty Katy’s average call time is 25 minutes. She’ll typically begin each call with a customer with the same line – “How’s Your Day Going So Far?”.

After the pleasantries, she’ll quickly go down a rabbit hole with the customer explaining what she had for breakfast, lunch, dinner the night before, what TV show she watched, her last vacation to Fort Lauderdale, all her grandkids names.

Chatty Katy is the nicest fraud analyst you will meet, but she just goes on, and on, and on, and on…

#4 – Clicking and Passing Patty – She Keeps Her Stats High

Patty likes to go into the lowest risk fraud queues to boost her productivity stats. She logs in and starts clicking and passing on every account she can.

To her, its all about clicking and passing. She hasn’t stopped a fraud since 1998 and odds are she won’t anytime soon.

Don’t put passing Patty into a high-risk queue or you will be in trouble.

#5 – Robo Robert – He Makes Everyone Else Look Bad

Everyone loves to hate Robo Robert. He works more cases out of the queue than any other analyst, catches more fraud and solves more cases than anyone else.

He has too much energy and makes everyone else look bad with his amazing stats. Some say he isn’t human at all.

#6 – Lock-em Up Larry – He Would Like to Arrest Fraudsters (or Customers if He Could)

Lock em Up Larry takes his fraud analyst job a little too seriously. If he could bring a gun and badge into work to lock up fraudsters or customers (or both) he probably would. He uses a lot of heavy acronyms and code words when talking to customers like “Don’t worry I’m gonna Code 10 your account and put it on watch”.

Larry has applied to the police force a few times. He hasn’t heard back yet.

#7 – Donut Dottie – She Keeps The Snacks Coming Every Day

Donut Dottie loves to keep everyone in the group happy. So, she brings donuts and snacks every day and leaves them on the filing cabinet for everyone to partake of. People love her but hate her at the same time. Who doesn’t love a donut but hates what the donut does to their waistline.

Thank you, Dottie! Damn you, Dottie!

#8 Side by Side Sarah – The Pride of the Fraud Department

Whenever someone comes into the fraud group wanting to “see what the fraud group does”, the supervisor will always have them sit with Side by Side Sarah. She is flawless. She follows procedures to a tee. She never makes a mistake and the managers can always trust she will not expose any of the dirty secrets of the department.

So if your’re an auditor, a new employee, a visiting manager from another group or company – you’re going to sit with side by side Sarah – and she is going to blow your mind.

Side by side Sarah is the go-to-gal and the pride of the fraud group.

#9 – Oldster Oscar – The Old Way Was the Better Way

He was born in 1945. He has been investigating fraud since before the word was invented. He doesn’t own a smartphone, hates people that wear holes in their jeans, still wonders why you need more than 10 channels on TV, eats pot pies for lunch and drinks Ovaltine before bed each night.

And he hates new-fangled technology. He thinks the only way to find fraud is the old way – get his eyeballs on each and every account and use gut instinct to tell him what is fraud and what is not.

#10 – SmokeStack Cindy – It’s Time for Another Ciggy!

You’ll pass by Smokestack Cindy on the way into the building. She’s always there smoking a cigarette in between working a few accounts.

#11 – Roving Rita The Manager – She’s Just Passing Through

Roving Rita is the interim fraud manager that got plopped in the job because the last manager left on stress leave.

Roving Rita never considered a job in fraud until yesterday when she was asked to step in. Now she manages a team of 50 fraud analysts and has no idea what they do. Never fear, she’s just passing through!