What’s up fraud fighters, and welcome back to Fraud Forward:

Y’all, this episode is one of those conversations where I found myself taking notes while we were recording. Matt Janiga from Modern Treasury joined me to talk about hidden fraud infrastructure.

We talk all the time about faster payments, one API, better vendor tooling, AI agents, global money movement, and payment modernization. But underneath all of that is a much more complicated reality. There are payment rails, reversibility rules, KYC requirements, digital fingerprints, transaction monitoring decisions, consortium data, fraud operations workflows, and infrastructure choices that determine what fraud teams can actually see and stop.

And here is the thing: fraud does not live in silos, and neither does the infrastructure that moves money.

Matt has worked across regulation, fintech infrastructure, compliance, payments, and risk, with experience touching Dodd-Frank, Square, Stripe, Lithic, and now Modern Treasury. So this conversation gives us a really practical look at how the industry moved from the pre-vendor world, where teams were basically building fraud and compliance tools from scratch, into a world where specialized partners, orchestration layers, and agentic AI are changing what fraud teams can do.

For my credit union and community bank folks especially, this matters because you do not have to build everything alone anymore. A rising tide lifts all boats, and the more we understand the hidden fraud infrastructure behind modern payments, the better we can ask questions, pressure test controls, and protect the people we serve.

• How Dodd-Frank and post-crisis regulation helped shape the fintech ecosystem we know today
• Why banks stepping away from certain customer needs opened the door for fintech growth
• What the pre-vendor world looked like for fraud and compliance teams building tools from scratch
• Why fraud vendor infrastructure, orchestration layers, and fraud consortium data changed the way teams manage risk
• What fraud teams miss when they hear “one API” and assume payment infrastructure is simple
• How payment rail reversibility, ACH fraud, Reg E fraud, and tokenized credentials create hidden operational risk
• Why global USD accounts and global money movement require strong digital fingerprinting and risk-based controls
• How agentic AI fraud tools may reshape investigations, fraud operations, and human review over the next five years
• Why the “front door” is one of the most important places to invest when building a fraud program

• Work in fraud operations, payments, fintech, banking, risk, or compliance
• Want to better understand the hidden fraud infrastructure behind modern payments infrastructure
• Are evaluating fraud tooling, fraud vendor infrastructure, or payment orchestration partners
• Need a clearer view of payment rail reversibility, ACH reversibility, Reg E fraud, or global money movement risk
• Are thinking about agentic AI fraud, AI fraud agents, digital fingerprinting, and where humans should remain in the loop

What’s up, fraud fighters, and welcome to Fraud Forward.

In this episode, I am sitting down with Eric Shen, inspector in charge of the criminal investigations group for the United States Postal Inspection Service, to talk about something I think way too many fraud teams overlook: USPIS financial crime.

When financial crime escalates, most of us immediately think FBI, Secret Service, Homeland Security, or local law enforcement. And listen, those partners matter. But the Postal Inspection Service is one of the most powerful investigative partners in financial crime investigations, especially when mail theft, check fraud, mail fraud, bank fraud, identity theft, money laundering, or organized fraud networks are part of the picture.

This conversation is about more than stolen mail or missing packages. It is about how physical infrastructure still connects to modern financial institution fraud, how fraud teams can build stronger law enforcement partnerships, and why collaboration has to happen before the big case hits your desk.

Because behind every fraud case is a real person. A member. A customer. A family. A business. Someone whose trust, dignity, and financial stability may have been shaken in a way they will never forget.

And we, fraud fighters, have a responsibility to do something about that.

• A practical breakdown of how USPIS financial crime investigations work
• Why the United States Postal Inspection Service matters to banks, credit unions, fintechs, and payments companies
• How mail theft connects to check fraud, mail fraud, identity theft, bank fraud, and money laundering
• Why physical mail still matters, even in a digital fraud environment
• How organized fraud networks use stolen mail, altered checks, social media, and other channels to scale financial crime
• What makes a strong fraud referral to law enforcement
• Why relationship building matters before major fraud investigations happen
• How IAFCI and other industry networks help financial crime investigators connect the dots
• Why criminals are using social media, Telegram, and other platforms to organize fraud activity
• How AI and agentic AI are changing the future of financial crime investigations
• Why human oversight still matters when we use technology to fight fraud

• Fraud fighters at banks and credit unions
• Community bank and credit union leaders
• BSA, AML, fraud, and compliance teams
• Fintech and payments risk teams
• Financial crime investigators
• Frontline teams who see suspicious activity before anyone else does
• Law enforcement partners working fraud investigations and financial crime cases
• Risk leaders trying to improve referral and escalation processes
• Anyone responsible for fraud prevention, investigation, intelligence sharing, or victim support

This episode is for the teams who are trying to protect people in the middle of a fraud landscape that is moving fast.

What’s up, fraud fighters, and welcome to Fraud Forward.

I recorded this live from Safeguard’s AI Deep Dive Retreat at The Broadmoor in Colorado Springs, and y’all, let me tell you something: this was not just another room full of AI buzzwords. This was fraud leaders, payment experts, financial institution professionals, fintech voices, marketplace operators, and risk leaders all sitting in the same place asking one very real question.

What happens to fraud prevention when artificial intelligence changes everything?

The future of AI fraud is not some far-off thing we are all fixin’ to deal with later. It is already here. We are seeing AI change the speed, scale, and complexity of fraud operations right now. We are seeing it show up in synthetic identity fraud, AI scams, AI identity verification, agentic AI fraud, fraud detection automation, governance conversations, and the pressure fraud teams are already carrying every single day.

But this episode is not about panic.

It is about realism.

It is about what fraud fighters are seeing, what institutions are building, where the gaps still are, and how we keep humans at the center while fraud keeps accelerating around us.

• A practical conversation about the future of AI fraud and what it means for fraud operations
• How AI fraud prevention is changing across banking, credit unions, fintech, payments, marketplaces, and risk teams
• Why synthetic identity fraud, AI scams, and identity fraud prevention are becoming major areas of concern
• How AI in fraud prevention can help investigators analyze data, identify patterns, and reduce noise
• Why AI governance in fraud prevention cannot be treated as something we clean up later
• How agentic AI fraud, know your agent, and KYA fraud prevention are becoming part of the next conversation
• Why human-in-the-loop fraud detection still matters, even when fraud analyst AI tools are getting better
• How fraud fighters and AI can work together without replacing the people who know this work best
• A reminder that responsible AI risk management has to include governance, empathy, collaboration, and practical controls

• Financial institution leaders and fraud professionals
• Risk, compliance, and cybersecurity teams
• Fraud operations teams and investigators
• Credit union and community bank leaders
• Banking fraud prevention teams
• Credit union fraud prevention teams
• Fintech, payments, and marketplace risk teams
• BSA, AML, KYC, and identity teams
• Regulators and policy advisors
• Industry advocates and victim support professionals
• Media professionals covering scams, fraud, AI, and financial crime
• Anyone trying to understand how AI-driven fraud affects real people, real institutions, and real fraud teams

This conversation is for the fraud fighters who are not just trying to check a compliance box. It is for the teams trying to protect members, customers, and communities while also figuring out how to use AI-powered fraud prevention without creating new risk.