Trust & Safety in Numbers

In this episode, “The democratization of fraud meets fraud-as-a-service (FaaS),” Sift Trust and Safety Architects discuss how evolving methods of both casual and commercialized fraud present an increasing risk to online businesses and consumers everywhere. They share who and what to watch out for, where to look for unexpected vulnerabilities, and how merchants can keep people and profits secure.

Crypto-based fraud is on the rise and evolving inside a disrupted market. In this episode of the Digital Trust & Safety Insider Podcast, Sift Trust and Safety Architect Jeff Sakasegawa speaks with Special Agent Shawn Bradstreet about the U.S. Secret Service's ongoing investigation into “pig butchering”—a global fraud phenomenon combining online romance scams with a crypto twist.

Gaming and gambling operators haven't had decades to figure out the fight against online fraud. At best, they've had a few years, all marked with global economic disruption and digital transformation. Businesses in every market and at every stage of growth can learn a couple of fraud-fighting cheat codes from our friends in gaming. In part 2 of this episode of the Digital Trust & Safety Insider podcast, Sift VP of Trust and Safety, Kevin Lee, continues his discussion with Dom Squeo, gaming industry veteran and risk consultant for Eilers & Krejcik, about the impact of evolving fraud strategies and how to protect your platform from abuse.

Gaming and gambling operators haven't had decades to figure out the fight against online fraud. At best, they've had a few years, all marked with global economic disruption and digital transformation. Businesses in every market and at every stage of growth can learn a couple of fraud-fighting cheat codes from our friends in gaming. In part 1 of this episode of the Digital Trust & Safety Insider podcast, Sift VP of Trust and Safety, Kevin Lee, chats with Dom Squeo, gaming industry veteran and risk consultant for Eilers & Krejcik, about the impact of evolving fraud strategies on the mobile and online gaming space, and what providers need to know to stay on top.

As we mark the second anniversary of COVID-19, online providers are once again facing disrupted consumer demand and behavior, supply chain shortages, unchecked inflation, and global socioeconomic unrest. Jeff Sakasegawa, Trust and Safety Architect at Sift, shares his take on what economists are calling 2022's “summer of hell,” and how fraudsters are poised to turn these problems into profits.

We're back! In the first episode of the Digital Trust & Safety Insider Podcast, Trust & Safety Architect Jane Lee sits down with Host Arwen Heredia to share her experience exposing an emerging romance-meets-crypto scam known as Pig Butchering.

We're back! In this new episode of Trust & Safety in Numbers, Sift Trust and Safety Architect and new host, Jeff Sakasegawa, sits down with Sift CEO, Jason Tan, to discuss how the pandemic has accelerated a global digital transformation, the role trust and safety is playing, and which recent changes are here to stay.

Sahil Farooqi, head of customer care & safety at Rently, shares how his innovative startup builds a hybrid fraud-fighting solution that combines the efficiency of machine learning with the nuance of the human eye.

Innovators like Twitter, Airbnb, and Google are adopting a Digital Trust & Safety approach to risk and revenue. But what is it, and how does it benefit you? Industry veterans Kevin Lee and Jeff Sakasegawa share the hows and whys of Digital Trust & Safety.

Customer card scams pose an existential threat to e-commerce sites and brick-and-mortar stores alike. Daniel Aaronson shares insights from Square and the financial space to help you understand and fight this insidious threat.

Data breaches are so common that it's easy to tune them out. But Cameron D'Ambrosi, host of the State of Identity podcast, helps us understand why data breaches matter for your business and how you should rethink your fraud-fighting methods.

When you think of data breaches, nonprofits probably don't come to mind. But their sensitive data and lack of resources leave them uniquely vulnerable. Nomi Conway, a fraud fighter from Square who's working with nonprofits at UC Berkeley, shares insights.

To help you prepare for the holiday ecommerce fraud rush, we sit down with Courtney Fahrer, a fraud expert and founder of OpsTales. This podcast has something for everyone -- whether you've finalized Q4 planning or you're ready to throw in the towel.

Kevin Beaver, author of Hacking for Dummies, has been working in internet security since the advent of the "world wide web". He shares how businesses can patch up their weakest link in the fight against data breaches: their own employees.

Much ink has been spilled about the relationship between crypto and fraud, the blockchain and the dark web. Until now, we've mostly looked at crypto through the lens of ecommerce. We chat with David Yermack, an NYU professor of business and law, for an entirely new perspective.

Chargebacks are more than meets the eye. We sit down with Patrick Presto, who handled risk & disputes at Square, to learn how you can harness the power of chargebacks to gain insights into how users are experiencing your site.

Cryptocurrencies and the blockchain represent a new frontier wrought with regulatory and fraud challenges. We chat with Daniel Sankey, who handles risk management at Coinbase, about what crypto and blockchain mean for the future of trust & safety.

In the world of online games, everything happens fast: purchases are fulfilled instantaneously, and gameplay keeps a quick pace. It's easy to see why gaming attracts fraudsters -- but Daniele Thillman of Green Man Gaming shows how businesses fight back.

Two experts who have fought fraud at Google, Square, and beyond teach us best practices for content moderation. Drawing on their colorful experience, Kevin Lee and Jeff Sakasegawa deliver tips, tricks, and insights.

You may not realize it, but ecommerce fraud has consequences for national security. Melissa Griffith, PhD candidate in political science at UC Berkeley, explains what happens when businesses and governments fight global cyber threats, and when they fail.

Two trust & safety experts -- Oggie Nicolic, a Google engineer with a background in risk management, and Kevin Lee, trust & safety architect at Sift -- share insiders' best practices for combating a pervasive threat: account takeover.

To fight account takeover, it helps to think like a fraud fighter -- and a fraudster! We chat with Karisse Hendrick and former FBI Most Wanted hacker Brett Johnson, who share the number one mistake businesses make while fighting ATO...and how much cash fits in a standard JanSport backpack.

Since Sift Science launched Trust & Safety in Numbers, we've interviewed people on all sides of the fraud fight: an FBI agent, a former FBI Most Wanted hacker, fraud analysts, and much more. Here are 20 surprising things we've learned from our guests.

Oggie Nikolic, a Google engineer with a background in risk management, and Kevin Lee, trust & safety architect at Sift Science, explain why content abuse is more complex than "fake news" -- and how online marketplaces & communities should approach the challenge.

Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are creating new fraud challenges. The problem? No one knows what they are yet. How can fraud fighters use the lessons of the past to brave this landscape? We chat with Patrick Presto, formerly of Square, to find out.

Machine learning (ML) seems to be changing everything. But is it changing how we interact online? Sift Science CTO Fred Sadaghiani draws on his diverse experience building ML systems to discuss how this groundbreaking tech impacts trust & safety online.

How do dating sites deal with their uniquely personal fraud challenges? Sejal Monterroso, VP of customer success at Zoosk, has an abundance of stories -- about love, fraud, Google Images, and a Turkish model.

When CTO Fred Sadaghiani first started at Sift Science 6 years ago, we were a scrappy startup with huge aspirations. Fred discusses what he's learned, what sets Sift Science apart, and how machine learning is transforming the internet.

Fraudsters are constantly innovating, which pushes online fraud and security experts to do the same. But according to Robert Lee, a fraud expert with experience at Twitter and Amazon, fraud fighters are over-relying on a “one size fits all” approach. Instead, Robert advocates for dynamic methods like risk-based authentication. How can fraud fighters stay ahead of the game?

Being a fraud analyst is a high-stakes job, often punctuated by strange twists and turns. How do analysts navigate the fast-paced world of online fraud? What challenges do they face? And what on earth do chocodiles have to do with it? In this episode, we sit down with two veteran fraud fighters: Michelle Arguelles and Kevin Lee. Michelle and Kevin draw on years of experience at companies like WePay, Facebook, and Square to give us an inside look at fraud fighting.

White hat hackers roam the internet in search of security vulnerabilities. Unlike their black hat counterparts, their goal isn’t to penetrate those vulnerabilities: it’s to make website and business owners aware of their existence. But Alex Rice, co-founder of bug bounty organization HackerOne, explains that they’re playing a dangerous game. Without a culture of vulnerability disclosure, white hat hackers can’t do their job without risking severe legal penalties. Alex Rice sits down with us to chat about how our pursuit of online safety might be causing harm as well as good.

Curve is a London-based fintech startup that’s out to revolutionize the way we make payments. But new technology creates a wealth of opportunity for consumers and fraudsters alike. How does a small team prevent -- and fight -- new and innovative types of fraud? We sit down with Rona Ruthen, head of operations at Curve, to talk about the collision of fraud and fintech.

It’s hard enough building a trust & safety team -- but what if your team spans continents? What if you’re building from scratch? What if you’re dealing with a type of fraud you’ve never seen before? Courtney Bode is marketplace operations manager at Wanelo, where she faced all of these challenges and more. Kevin Lee sits down with Courtney to discuss strategies for success in the changing fraud landscape.

Chargebacks are a common problem -- so common, in fact, that you may think there’s nothing new to say about them. But Denise Aptekar, senior director of global payments at Upwork, has reconceptualized friendly fraud in a way that just might change the way you see chargebacks. How should fraud and risk teams approach this ubiquitous problem? And how might chargebacks be used as a snapshot of customer experience as a whole?

For fraud fighters, the winter holiday stress isn’t limited to buying gifts and entertaining in-laws. Last year, ecommerce fraud spiked by over 30% during the holidays, and it’s projected to get even worse this year. In this episode, we sit down with fraud fighters from Patreon, Wanelo, and Sift Science to get some life-saving tips on how to prepare for the holidays.

If you’re like most people, you probably don’t spend too much time thinking about payroll fraud. You might not even know what it is. In this episode, we sit down with Greg Wilson, risk product specialist at Gusto, to learn why payroll fraud matters more than you realize. Then Greg and Kevin Lee, our trust and safety expert at Sift Science, compare notes on building an effective risk team.

As a former FBI Most Wanted hacker and a current cybersecurity consultant, Brett Johnson has seen the world of online fraud from all angles. Fraud fighters know what comes to mind when someone says “card-not-present fraud” or “account takeover,” but what does a former cybercriminal see that we’re not seeing? In this episode, Brett takes us beyond the buzzwords, shedding valuable light on the types of fraud we’re overlooking, ignoring, or even encouraging.

There’s a reason the Secret Service calls Brett Johnson the “original internet godfather.” This former hacker created the template for dark web marketplaces, escaped from prison twice, landed on the FBI Most Wanted list, and has lived to tell the tale. Now, he’s a sought-after security consultant. We sit down with Brett to chat about what he’s learned on his journey.

So, you've decided you need a trust & safety team. What's the next step? Getting buy-in. But that's easier said than done! How do you convince product managers to invest the resources needed for data scientists, engineers, fraud analysts, and more? Kevin Lee, Trust and Safety Architect at Sift Science, and Paul Rockwell, Head of Trust & Safety at LinkedIn, guide you through the process.

Building a fraud team is one of the most important steps a business can take to reduce risk. But it’s also one of the most difficult. What factors should you weigh while building your team? What pitfalls should you look out for? And what missteps should you avoid? To get the scoop, we talk to two experts: Kevin Lee, Trust and Safety Architect at Sift Science, and Paul Rockwell, Head of Trust and Safety at LinkedIn.

When businesses suffer account takeover (ATO), it’s often the FBI that picks up the pieces. Over the years, the FBI cybersecurity branch has had an unparalleled on-the-ground view of how fraud has evolved. We chat with FBI special agent MK Palmore about corporate account takeover, the efficacy of cybersecurity awareness campaigns, and what he’s learned throughout his career.

As editor-at-large at CardNotPresent.com and a sought-after fraud-fighting consultant, Karisse Hendrick has been in the trenches for years. And because of her time on the fraud front lines, she has a lot to say about why we’re seeing a rise in account takeover (ATO) and which businesses are likely to become targets. What are businesses overlooking? How can they better prepare to deal with ATO? We chat with Karisse for an insider’s perspective.