The Weekly Fraudcast

🤠 Vito at Signifyd
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Your weekly one-stop-shop for the most up-to-date insights on ecommerce fraud, hosted by Gena & Vito. Casual. Unfiltered. No marketing or sales pitches. Just great conversation. Join our live weekly sessions! https://www.addevent.com/event/jR23311900

  1. MAR 27

    The Connecticut Fraud Ring: How 11 Rapid Orders Bypassed AVS

    Traditional fraud tools are officially failing. In this episode of The Weekly Fraudcast, Gena and Vito dissect a massive fraud ring out of Connecticut that bypassed legacy verification systems entirely. By hijacking an account that had been dormant for 879 days, fraudsters unleashed 11 rapid-fire orders using the exact same credit card. Because the AVS and CVV matched perfectly, rule-based models let the attacks right through. Vito breaks down how behavioral analytics caught what traditional tools missed, highlighting critical signals like device hopping, IP switching, and resale arbitrage patterns. 👇 WHAT WE COVER: 🔹 The Connecticut Case: Why perfect AVS matches are fraud's best friend. 🔹 Behavioral Drift: Spotting the difference between good customers and bad actors switching devices mid-session. 🔹 Telegram Intelligence: Using tools like Scope Now to safely investigate the dark web. 🔹 Strategic Friction: Why wiping stored payment cards is a highly effective defense. ⏳ EPISODE CHAPTERS:00:00 - Intro03:37 - Gratitude and Community Engagement04:01 - Matthew's Conference Speaking Experience08:03 - Connecticut Fraud Ring Discovery09:08 - Behavioral Analytics Over AVS Matching14:29 - Account Takeover and Telegram Channels16:51 - Scope Now for Fraud Investigation23:01 - AVS Limitations and Chargeback Challenges26:37 - Customer Verification Phone Tactics28:41 - 3D Secure Implementation Benefits31:10 - Address Verification System Nuances35:13 - International Orders Without AVS38:33 - Selective Friction Implementation Strategies40:03 - Justin's Travel Updates41:27 - Community Growth and Team Building 🔗 Connect with Vito on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/vitoatsignifyd/

    45 min

  2. MAR 23

    The Analyst Upgrade: Pivoting from Manual Review to Threat Hunting (Live at MRC '26)

    While the industry panics about future AI bots, the real threat is draining wallets right now. We are broadcasting live from the floor of the Merchant Risk Council (MRC) 2026 conference in Las Vegas. In this episode, Gena and Vito cut through the hype to address the $86 billion consumer scam crisis that is destroying brand trust before customers even reach your checkout page. It is time to reframe how we think about the manual review queue. Fraud analysts aren't being replaced—they are being upgraded. Vito breaks down how elite fraud leaders are pivoting their teams away from repetitive transactional decisions and turning them into strategic threat intelligence hunters. By using AI tools like Claude to handle the heavy lifting of brand protection, human analysts are freed up to investigate complex false positives and build critical relationships across the business. 👇 WHAT WE COVER: 🔹 The $86B Crisis: Why consumer scams are your problem, even if they happen off-platform. 🔹 The AI Pivot: How to use Claude to automate dark web sweeps, catch typosquatting, and issue takedowns. 🔹 The Analyst Upgrade: Reappropriating human talent for strategic thinking rather than manual busywork. ⏳ EPISODE CHAPTERS:00:00 - Intro: Live from the Floor of MRC Vegas '2605:15 - The $86 Billion Consumer Scam Crisis12:30 - Why Nobody is Seeing a Wave of AI Agent Traffic Yet21:45 - The Evolution of the Manual Review Queue32:10 - Using Claude for Threat Intelligence & Brand Protection41:20 - Becoming the Ultimate Fraud Educator for Your Network48:20 - Outro: The Next Generation of Risk Teams 🔗 Connect with Vito on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/vitoatsignifyd/

    50 min

  3. MAR 6

    The Agentic Commerce Blueprint: Why You Shouldn't Fear AI Shoppers (w/ Jonathon Hope)

    Are you tired of hearing that AI bots are going to ruin e-commerce? So are we. In this episode of The Weekly Fraudcast, Vito Petruzzelli sits down with Jonathon Hope, Head of Product at Kasada, to cut through the hype and deliver a pragmatic, actionable guide to preparing for Agentic Commerce. They discuss how to actually see the AI traffic hitting your site and how to differentiate a helpful shopping assistant from a malicious script. The duo explains why you don't have to choose between security and discovery. By implementing smart governance, you can allow AI agents to index your products while keeping your checkout and login endpoints strictly secured. This episode is your blueprint for navigating the future of retail without the panic. Key Takeaways: Visibility First: How to read headers and identify true AI traffic.Smart Governance: Strategies for allowing product discovery while blocking automated account creation or checkout.The Reality Check: Why the transition to full Agentic Commerce is a multi-year evolution, giving you time to prepare. Episode Chapters: 00:00 - Intro: Welcome to The Fraudcast04:00 - Introducing Jonathon Hope & The Agentic Commerce Reality07:10 - Identifying AI Agents vs. Spoofed Headers11:20 - Visibility 101: What Even is a Header?18:00 - How AI Traffic Impacts Account Takeovers (ATO)22:30 - The Governance Strategy: Allowing Search vs. Allowing Checkout34:00 - How to Start Controlling Your AI Traffic Today42:10 - Prompt Injection Risks and the Future of AI Browsers46:40 - Outro: You Are the Vanguard of Agentic Commerce 🔗 Connect with Vito on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/vitoatsignifyd/ 🔗 Connect with Jonathon Hope on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonathonhope/

    50 min

  4. FEB 23

    The $300K Handbag Heist: How Cybercriminals are Tricking Banks and Bypassing AVS

    What happens when cybercriminals figure out how to trick the banks before they even trick the merchant? In this episode of The Weekly Fraudcast, Vito Petruzzelli dissects a massive, highly coordinated attack where fraudsters stole nearly $300,000 in luxury handbags in just 48 hours. Joined by fraud fighters Jessica Flores, De'Airra Belcher, Jared Gruenberg, Paula Zon, Matthew Blanchard, and more, the team breaks down the exact mechanics of this new threat. We uncover how bad actors are actively calling banks to change billing addresses (making stolen cards pass AVS perfectly) and using remote-access social engineering to hijack devices. More importantly, the panel drops a massive revelation: If you are paying for Account Takeover (ATO) chargebacks, you might be getting scammed twice. We reveal the specific Visa and Mastercard reason codes that prove banks are actually liable for these losses—not merchants. Key Takeaways: The anatomy of the $300K luxury proxy-IP scam.How to spot a "perfect" address match when the victim is in another state.How to use Visa/Mastercard rules to push back on invalid ATO chargebacks.Join the "Fraudcast" Community:Want the cheat sheets, PDF breakdowns, and tactical resources mentioned in these episodes? We don't put them behind corporate landing pages—we drop them directly to our community. 🔗 Connect with Vito on LinkedIn to access the Masterclass resources: https://www.linkedin.com/in/vitoatsignifyd/

    50 min

  5. FEB 16

    Chaos Is What You Make Of It (w/ Shelley Soucy)

    Shelley Soucy went from serving food at Disney World to becoming one of the most skilled fraud investigators in e-commerce. Her journey reveals the unexpected skills that translate from high-pressure restaurant work to conducting hundreds of fraud interviews. In this conversation, Shelley breaks down her transition from Disney's Magic Kingdom restaurants to managing loss prevention at Peloton. She explains how working in chaos taught her to stay calm under pressure, why she approaches every interview like a human conversation, and the mindset shifts that helped her excel in a field where validation is rare. Shelley discusses the reality of working in fraud prevention—from dealing with Monday morning quarterbacks to explaining opportunity costs to executives who prefer revenue promises over loss prevention. She shares practical advice on building confidence, asking for feedback, and why treating people with respect matters even in difficult conversations. Episode Chapters: 00:00 - Intro 02:25 - From English lit to Disney restaurants 03:44 - The career pivot that changed everything 05:32 - Teaching interview skills vs domain knowledge 08:15 - Restaurant chaos builds unshakeable confidence 11:22 - Chaos is what you make of it 13:27 - Learning through active listening and feedback 17:05 - Fighting impostor syndrome with self belief 20:44 - Disney to e-commerce fraud transition 24:25 - Learning fraud prevention bite by bite 28:43 - Fraud teams never get external validation 33:32 - Steeling yourself against Monday morning quarterbacks 39:18 - Teaching marketing teams to think like fraudsters 41:37 - Five percent fraud loss is expected not acceptable 46:25 - Doing the right thing without recognition 49:33 - Be the loudest voice in the room The Chaos Superpower: The discussion covers active listening techniques, the fraud triangle concept, and Shelley’s amazing career journey. She explains how restaurant experience at Disney prepared her for investigative work and why chaos management became her superpower. 🔗 Connect with Shelley Soucy on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shelleysoucy/ 🔗 Connect with Vito on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/vitoatsignifyd/

    53 min

  6. FEB 7

    "Agentic Commerce" Really Means "Search Has Changed -- Forever"

    The reality of agentic commerce in 2025 is nothing like the hype promised. While everyone expected AI shopping agents to revolutionize Black Friday and Cyber Monday with 10-20% of traffic, what actually happened was a massive spike in AI search referrals, not autonomous purchasing. Vito Petruzzelli breaks down why agent commerce conversion rates remain terrible, taking 30+ minutes for simple purchases that often get declined by fraud systems anyway. The real story is how search behavior has fundamentally shifted - consumers now use ChatGPT to find deals and get referred to merchant sites, rather than having bots make purchases for them. Key topics covered: [00:00] Intro [02:42] Hollywood’s Ben Li [04:31] Miss Dee challenges customer service thinking [05:45] Fraud companies face duplication concerns [07:12] Weekly fraud risk discussion format [09:02] Agent commerce reality check begins [11:14] Eating crow on AI hype [12:11] Moltbook AI bots create existential crisis [14:30] Robots hire humans for tasks [16:03] Agent commerce theory versus reality [18:40] Cooper Flagg jersey purchase fails [20:32] The one Fraudcast episode you have to go back and listen to [21:05] Referral traffic spikes thirteen times [22:30] ChatGPT dominates AI search referrals [25:40] Discoverability challenges for merchants [26:12] Search patterns fundamentally shift away [31:31] Machine learning evaluates AI signals [35:07] Payment instruments determine everything, ultimately [38:53] Eight questions cross entire company [43:05] Manual review tags agent orders [45:07] Victim assisted fraud on steroids [47:12] Sleepy robot callers spotted [49:34] Granular segmentation provides fraud protection [51:22] Next week’s special guest runs a school of communications The episode reveals the technical hurdles still blocking agent commerce, from PCI compliance issues to the challenges of exposing product catalogs to AI scrapers. Vito demonstrates how ChatGPT dominates AI referral traffic while other platforms like Claude and Gemini barely register. For fraud professionals, this means understanding new signals like unusual screen resolutions, hosting IPs from Virginia data centers, and bot strings in device APIs. The conversation covers how to segment this traffic, run A/B tests through manual review, and prepare for a world where discovery happens through AI agents even if purchasing remains manual. The discussion includes practical advice on testing your own website with ChatGPT's agent mode, identifying the signals these orders create, and building internal conversations around the eight critical questions every company needs to answer about agent commerce readiness.

    53 min

  7. JAN 30

    The Mustard Stain That Exposed a Pavlovian Return Scam

    Banking fraud specialist De'Airra Belcher joins the Fraudcast community of experts to expose the hidden vulnerabilities in gift card systems and return policies that fraudsters exploit daily. From embedded gift cards at Dollar Tree to sophisticated return abuse schemes, this conversation reveals the shocking gaps between different industries that bad actors use to their advantage. De'Airra brings 10 years of banking experience and 5 years in fraud prevention, sharing her expertise in pattern recognition and her mission to break down the silos that enable fraud across industries. The discussion covers everything from gift card tampering and social engineering targeting elderly victims to the real-world case of a customer who used return policies to game the system. Key topics covered: [00:00] Intro [01:09] Breaking down banking fraud silos [03:21] Hidden gift card tampering schemes [05:26] Open loop products fuel scams [09:18] Gift card draining prevention tactics [12:02] Why intentional disruption drives change [15:33] Fraudsters broadcast their own playbooks [18:06] Open source intelligence gathering methods [26:36] Real world return abuse patterns [32:13] Withholding instant refunds stops abuse [36:46] Aggressive customers target support teams [37:51] Call center training prevents policy erosion [43:53] Legacy thinking perpetuates fraud vulnerabilities [44:23] Customer satisfaction scores enable abuse [45:09] Why customers are never always right Paula from the gift card industry provides insider knowledge on open loop products, PCI compliance, and the evolution toward chip-enabled cards by 2027. Ryan McDonald from ScopeNow demonstrates how fraudsters openly share their methodologies on social media and dark web forums, turning their own bragging into actionable intelligence for fraud prevention teams. The conversation also tackles the systemic issues in customer service training that inadvertently enable fraud, including how satisfaction scores and commission structures incentivize representatives to bypass security policies. Shelly challenges the outdated "customer is always right" mentality, arguing that some customers act purely in their own interests regardless of business impact. The episode concludes with practical strategies for fraud prevention teams to collaborate with legal departments, update legacy policies, and implement data-driven approaches to return fraud detection. Learn how one merchant stopped instant refunds for suspicious customers and maintained loyalty while eliminating abuse. Subscribe for more fraud prevention insights and join the conversation in our Slack community.

    47 min

  8. JAN 26

    How 19 Customers Stole $1.4 Million Through Returns

    What if you could start with the answers instead of drowning in spreadsheets when returns fraud hits your business? This episode reveals how AI and large language models can flip your investigation process completely backwards - starting from the headline impact and drilling down to individual bad actors. Vito Petruzzelli demonstrates a revolutionary approach to returns analysis that cuts through the traditional export-pivot-table nightmare. Instead of getting buried in hundreds of thousands of rows of data while the landscape shifts around you, see how you can instantly identify high-value customers against those responsible for abusive returns. The conversation digs deep into practical policy enforcement challenges with insights from fraud fighters across different industries. Shelley Soucy shares her battle-tested approach to separating legitimate "dressing room at home" shoppers from malicious actors, including her tiered restock fee strategy and instant refund restrictions. Key topics covered: [00:00] Intro [03:37] Why AI prevents analysis paralysis [06:05] The fraud investigation spreadsheet trap [11:05] Reframe returns using reverse engineering [14:53] Customer lifetime value drives decisions [16:10] Start with headlines not spreadsheets [18:06] Damaged item patterns reveal logistics issues [21:30] Finding high dollar return outliers [24:52] Building workflows for repeat offenders [28:31] Where to draw bad actor lines [32:01] Intent matters more than return rates [34:33] Instant refund thresholds save money [37:03] Calculating the perfect restock fee [40:23] Percentage based return fees work better [44:39] Moving beyond cart approval queues Matthew Blanchard raises the critical question every business faces - where do you draw the line between good customers and bad actors? The discussion explores percentage-based fees, customer lifetime value calculations, and the psychology behind pricing thresholds that actually work. Justin Hicken breaks down a sophisticated returns management system, including membership programs that waive return fees for loyal customers while maintaining strict oversight of serial returners. Learn how to move beyond order-by-order approval decisions and start tackling the bigger revenue optimization opportunities that make you indispensable to leadership. This isn't about becoming better at declining transactions - it's about becoming the strategic problem solver your company needs.

    47 min
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About

Your weekly one-stop-shop for the most up-to-date insights on ecommerce fraud, hosted by Gena & Vito. Casual. Unfiltered. No marketing or sales pitches. Just great conversation. Join our live weekly sessions! https://www.addevent.com/event/jR23311900

Information

  • Creator
    🤠 Vito at Signifyd
  • Years Active
    2025 - 2026
  • Episodes
    33
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © 🤠 Vito at Signifyd
  • Show Website
    The Weekly Fraudcast