The Weekly Fraudcast

Stop giving away store credit for missing packages. In this episode of The Weekly Fraudcast, Vito and Gena tackle the massive $8.2 billion porch piracy problem and the underground economy of refund scammers. Industry experts Paula, Jamie, Matthew, and Lizzie reveal why appeasing repeat complainers with store credit often results in double losses when they inevitably file a chargeback anyway. The c...

If you are relying on single-axis velocity rules, you are catching good customers in your nets. In this episode of The Weekly Fraudcast, host Vito Petruzzelli breaks down the Q1 2024 earned-out fraud vintage. Vito explains why traditional high purchase velocity rules are failing, and introduces the Multi-Axis Velocity framework to modernize your detection strategy. By analyzing addresses, payment...

Fraud teams are no longer just fighting chargebacks; they are battling sophisticated logistics rings and AI-powered returns abuse. In this episode of The Weekly Fraudcast, Vito Petruzzelli and Gena Rivera bring on John Mayover, Senior Manager of Ecommerce Fraud and Compliance at URBN. John reveals how he accidentally started his 16-year fraud career by solving a puzzle at a bank, leading him to un...

You are likely losing more money to your own fraud rules than to actual fraudsters. In this episode of The Weekly Fraudcast, Gena Rivera and Stingray Fraud Intelligence founder Jared Gruenberg dissect the most expensive problem in e-commerce: false positives.\ Jared reveals the shocking math behind overly aggressive fraud controls, explaining why false positives cost 4.5x more than actual fraud lo...

Digital wallets are not created equal. In this episode of The Weekly Fraudcast, Vito Petruzzelli and Gena Rivera dissect the explosive spike in digital wallet fraud hitting merchants right now. While Apple Pay’s strict biometric verification keeps fraudsters at bay, Google Pay’s lax provisioning rules have led to a shocking fraud rate on its transactions. Vito and Gena break down how bad actors ar...

Fraud teams are accidentally turning into revenue killers. In this episode of The Weekly Fraudcast, Gena, Vito and the Fraudcast community tackle one of the industry's biggest blind spots: rule decay. Almost one in four rule declines are false positives, meaning legacy rules are actively rejecting your best customers. Gena and Vito reveal why any rule older than 90 days is a prime candidate fo...

Account takeover attacks have surged 40% over the past year, as bad actors increasingly target loyalty points and stored payment methods. In this episode of The Weekly Fraudcast, Vito Petruzzelli and Gena Rivera tackle one of e-commerce's fastest-growing threats. They break down how fraudsters are spinning up typosquatting domains and exploiting accounts that have been dormant for over a year....

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...

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...

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 shop...

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 mo...

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....

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 purch...

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...

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...

Welcome to 2026 and the brutal reality of post-holiday returns. We're diving deep into the $181 billion problem that's already hit ecommerce this year, with returns spiking 10% higher than last year and nearly 20% of all holiday sales coming back through your door. Shelley Soucy from Peloton shares her incredible detective work uncovering a $300,000 returns fraud ring, including one custom...

Emma Linnane breaks down her unconventional path from radio broadcaster to fraud operations manager, revealing why customer service experience is the secret weapon most fraud fighters are missing. In this final episode of 2025, Emma shares her proven red box method for winning chargeback disputes, explains how she uses Facebook to catch first-party fraudsters through family connections, and discus...

The post-holiday fraud season is in full swing and fraudsters are getting creative with their attacks. Ecommerce and hospitality businesses are facing sophisticated social engineering schemes where bad actors call customer service pretending to be corporate, manipulate hotel staff into processing fake refunds, and exploit account takeovers to redirect orders to new addresses. This episode covers t...

Serge El Hachem from Lazer Technologies drops a masterclass on where ecommerce is heading and why your current approach might leave you behind. The big revelation? Websites as we know them could be extinct in 250 days. Sounds dramatic, but here's what's actually happening. Discovery is shifting from Google searches to AI agents like ChatGPT making product recommendations. Brands that aren&...

The brutal truth about holiday fraud season nobody wants to admit - it's mentally exhausting, technically challenging, and feels almost inhumane at times. Vito Petruzzelli and Gena Rivera host their weekly fraud prevention community where professionals share real struggles heading into Black Friday and Cyber Monday. This pre-Thanksgiving episode captures the raw anxiety fraud fighters experien...

Address manipulation is one of the most overlooked fraud tactics hitting ecommerce businesses today. Fraudsters use sophisticated techniques to bypass velocity checks and denial lists by creating dozens of variations of the same address, exploiting your systems while still getting their packages delivered. This episode breaks down the most common address manipulation schemes including velocity eva...

Digital transformation doesn't have to be scary when you approach it the right way. Nirav Sheth, Chairman of Anatta, breaks down how ecommerce brands can scale from 50 million to 100 million and beyond without hitting the dreaded growth ceiling that stops most companies cold. This conversation reveals why most digital transformation projects fail and how to flip the script by focusing on busin...

The haunting specter of triangulation fraud is hitting major merchants hard this holiday season. Three players create the perfect storm - an innocent buyer seeking deals on marketplaces, a fraudster selling products they don't own, and a stolen credit card victim who gets hit with the chargeback. Here's how it works: A legitimate shopper finds your product listed below retail price on a ma...

Fraud expert Anna Prince-Palmer reveals the psychological tactics that separate successful fraud fighters from those who constantly play defense. With 15 years of experience spanning law enforcement and tech, she breaks down why understanding criminal behavior is your most powerful weapon. Anna explains why fraudsters are more motivated than you are - their survival often depends on success while...

Jesse Martin-Alexander from Kasada reveals how sophisticated bot networks are preparing for Black Friday by creating fake accounts and exploiting pricing errors right now. These aren't your typical nuisance bots - they're organized operations that can devastate your holiday sales and customer experience. The conversation covers the real cost of bot attacks beyond just stolen inventory, inc...