Sardine | National Fraud Prevention Strategy: U.S.A. Lags Behind

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

Fraud Forward is powered by Sardine.

Alright, let’s get into something that is bigger than any one institution, and honestly bigger than any one fraud team. The United States does not lack expertise in fraud prevention. It lacks a unified national structure that moves at the speed of modern crime.

Criminal organizations coordinate globally in real time. Domestic coordination frameworks remain fragmented. And that structural mismatch is why a comprehensive National Fraud Prevention Strategy is still unfinished business.

In this episode, I’m talking with Matt O’Neill, former Managing Director of Global Cyber Investigative Operations at the United States Secret Service. He has decades of multinational investigative leadership, and he breaks down exactly why U.S. fraud prevention reform has to be more than incremental updates. We need alignment, accountability, and real time fraud intelligence that can actually keep pace with transnational crime.

Why this matters for fraud fighters

Let’s reset the room for a moment. Fraud is not staying inside the walls of financial institutions.

Fraud networks operate across:

Banks and credit unions
Telecommunications providers, fueling telecom enabled fraud
Digital platforms, fueling social media scam facilitation
Cross-border infrastructure that moves and launders funds quickly

And if our response is fragmented, the fraud schemes scale faster than we can coordinate.

Here is what this episode makes clear about fraud data silos and why they matter:

Fraud data silos persist across sectors, so signals arrive late and disconnected
Law enforcement fraud coordination is often constrained by funding and mandate differences
Cross industry fraud response requires partners beyond banking, but accountability is not evenly defined
Frameworks like 314A information sharing and 314B collaboration were designed for periodic exchange, not continuous real time fraud intelligence
Without regulatory modernization and public private fraud partnerships that include telecom and platforms, institutional response will always lag

A real National Fraud Prevention Strategy has to match the operational reality of organized fraud.

What you’ll hear in this episode

Why current U.S. coordination frameworks struggle to keep pace with modern fraud networks
How 314A information sharing and 314B collaboration can evolve toward real time fraud intelligence
The role of telecom enabled fraud and social media scam facilitation in scam scale and victim harm
Lessons from global fraud prevention models that treat scams as national security threats
Why a national anti scam center could improve coordination, reporting, and disruption speed

You should listen to this episode if you

Fraud or AML programs intersect with public policy considerations and you want clarity on what reform could look like
Coordination with law enforcement is part of institutional strategy and you want to understand the structural constraints
Real time fraud intelligence exchange is under evaluation and you are trying to reduce fraud data silos
Leadership is assessing enterprise fraud response alignment and wants a realistic view of cross sector dependencies
Your institution is involved in public private fraud partnerships and wants to strengthen cross industry fraud response

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Episode notes and key takeaways

The structural mismatch a national strategy must solve

A National Fraud Prevention Strategy has to address the mismatch between criminal coordination and institutional response.

Transnational organized fraud networks operate with:

Shared infrastructure
Centralized leadership
Rapid intelligence flow and operational adaptability

In contrast, U.S. fraud response is distributed across agencies, regulators, and institutions with varying mandates and funding levels. That fragmentation keeps fraud data silos alive across sectors, and criminals exploit that timing gap.

314A and 314B must evolve toward real time intelligence

Frameworks such as 314A information sharing and 314B collaboration created essential legal pathways for communication. They were a big deal.

But they were built for periodic exchange, not continuous real time fraud intelligence.

What happens when coordination is delayed:

Disruption capability drops
Funds move and launder before signals align
Institutions get stuck reacting after losses, not preventing before cash-out

U.S. fraud prevention reform has to modernize how information moves and how quickly it becomes actionable across public and private partners.

Telecom and social platforms are part of the fraud stack

Let me just assure you, the entry point for many scams is not banking. It is outside the bank.

Telecom enabled fraud and social media scam facilitation complicate accountability because enabling channels sit in different regulatory and operational worlds.

A cross industry fraud response has to include:

Telecommunications providers
Digital platforms
Financial institutions
International partners

Public private fraud partnerships cannot be banking-only if we want meaningful disruption. Without defined accountability across enabling sectors, enforcement remains reactive.

Global fraud prevention models show alternative structures

Global fraud prevention models show that centralized structures can create faster disruption and clearer policy direction.

Several nations have moved toward:

Centralized anti-scam task forces
Unified victim reporting systems
Integrated intelligence coordination centers

These models treat scams as a national security threat, not just isolated financial crimes. Law enforcement fraud coordination improves when funding, authority, and intelligence systems align under a cohesive national mandate.

This is where the national anti scam center concept becomes a real discussion, not a buzzword.

Leadership implications for financial institutions

Leadership implications extend directly to enterprise teams.

Enterprise fraud response strategies should incorporate external coordination realities, because your institution’s speed is affected by ecosystem speed.

Practical moves include:

Active participation in information sharing initiatives like 314A information sharing and 314B collaboration
Advocacy for regulatory modernization that supports real time fraud intelligence and clearer cross sector accountability
Support for fraud task force funding to reduce coordination delays and improve disruption capacity
Internal preparation for cross industry fraud response workflows so your institution can act quickly when intelligence arrives

A credible National Fraud Prevention Strategy requires alignment between financial crime policy reform and operational execution. Otherwise, we stay stuck in fraud data silos while criminals stay coordinated.