That makes fraud prevention crucial for e-commerce merchants.
Forters fraud analysts are a multidisciplinary team of behavioral specialists and forensics investigators.
We think of ourselves as fraud philosophers because we relish contemplating complex scenarios to form Forters expert-driven decision system.
What drove you to choose your career path?
The job I had as a student was for a company called Fraud Sciences.
We were a small startup with big ideas.
After university, I knew I wanted to keep working on that challenge.
How did you go about getting your job?
What kind of education and experience did you need?
Not many people realize the diversity of fraud analysts backgrounds.
And it neednt be in a relevant fieldlook at me and theater directing.
I enjoyed being part of PayPal, but missed the startup vibe.
Thats something Id say is vital if youd thinking about working in fraud analysis.
Choose the company, and the team, wisely.
Theres no red tape at Forter, and that makes it much easier to have a real impact.
I have independence and flexibility, allied to responsibility.
Id advise people to look for that.
What kinds of things do you do beyond what most people see?
What do you actually spend the majority of your time doing?
But its not a part of my job.
What I do is treat the transactions as research material.
Thanks to them, we can take the process that guides excellent fraud detection and scale it.
I now know a lot more about the technical aspects of developing a system than I used to!
What normal people dont realize is the mindset thats involved.
Its definitely had an impact on me.
Ive reached the stage of having continual internal dialogues.
I always see two sides of any question - Im terrible at winning arguments, as a result.
Can you give me a typical example of the kind of fraud you might find?
(Stolen credit card transactions or what?)
Fraudsters are by nature creativethey have to be, to get around the safeguards erected against them!
So typical is hard to define.
But let me give you an example I encountered recently.
There was a customer who had tried to purchase a Mac.
On the surface, it looked like an ordinary purchasebut our automated system had rejected it.
The purchaser was really somewhere quite different, which we can tell with proxy piercing.
In a way, theres no such thing as typical fraud or transactions.
You always have to keep an open mind.
What misconceptions do people often have about your job?
Nobody knows anything about my job!
People think analyst means a financial analyst.
What are your average work hours?
A full-time fraud analyst would probably be working 45 hours a week.
What personal tips and shortcuts have made your job easier?
The newbie whos been here two months might outpace you in one area.
The important thing is to realize that being surrounded by experts in different areas is an amazing opportunity.
Just accept that your job is to learn, all the time.
Connected to that, I would say that asking questions is crucial.
You have to let go of the idea that some questions are silly or might make you look stupid.
Asking questions requires courage, but its always worth it.
If youre analyzing millions of transactions for fraud, you obviously arent doing so manually.
What sort of tools do you use?
This is actually a very interesting issue in fraud prevention today.
Believe it or not, there are retailers who review many of their transactions manually.
The average is more than a quarter of transactions manually reviewed!
Thats the kind of attitude that makes other departments resent Risk so muchit seems like theyre always saying no.
I hate seeing this.
Its better for customers, for retailers and for fraud analysts.
Whats the worst part of the job and how do you deal with it?
I sometimes feel bad that were so good at what we do.
Its not a victimless crime, after all.
I hate seeing signs that people have encountered this kind of attitude in the past.
They tie themselves in knots trying to look legitimate, which they really are anyway.
We know it, without their painful efforts, and I wish I could just tell them so.
Its a constant reminder that we live in an imperfect world.
Whats the most enjoyable part of the job?
I would say that a highlight of my week is always the weekly team meeting.
Sitting with the whole team, everyone bringing their knowledge and expertiseelectricity is in the air.
Also, strange as it may seem, I like that the stakes are high.
Do you have any advice for clients who need to enlist your services?
I tell new analysts to ask me all the questions in the world.
Id say the same to new customers.
Being a fraud analyst really does require the ability to listen to the customer.
We study this area, we work out whats going on.
Were the criminology department of e-commerce.
What do you do differently from your coworkers or peers in the same profession?
What do they do instead?
A crucial difference is the manual review versus automation question.
We dont review; we research.
Most companies dont do it this way, but having seen it in action, Im a complete believer.
You just cant rely on statistics and control groupsyoull always be three months behind the fraudsters.
Is it surprising that I find my job exhilarating?
Most fraud teams dont have to focus on these issues.
Their primary role is to prevent fraud.
But the way I see it, best practice fraud prevention doesnt just block fraudthats a given.
Best practice fraud prevention makes anti-fraud into a business asset.
How do you move up in your field?
Fraud analysis is a booming field in general.
But I wouldnt underestimate the value of specializing.
What I would say is: play to your strengths.
Choose the area that fascinates you, focus on it, and become an expert.
What do your clients under/over value?
I like that we can give our customers a very impressive bottom line.
Plus, their chargebacks quickly dived down to almost zero.
That sort of result is not uncommon.
What advice would you give to those aspiring to join your profession?
Autodidacts do well at this job.
That means that it really does come down to merit.
Everyone has a chance.
In fact, at Forter, we dont ask much about your CV at interview.
We set puzzles and ask questions, to find out how your brain works, and how you think.
If youre open to that kind of processwell, the job might be for you, too!
I would say… dont try it if youre intimidated by smart people.
There are a lot of smart people in this field.
They probably wouldnt be good at it if they werent.
If youd like to share your career, email us at[email protected].
Image byIra Yapanada(Shutterstock).
