Fraud Awareness Week Builds Stronger Fraud Prevention Everywhere with John Duffley.

What is up fraud fighters, and welcome to Fraud Forward!

Today we’re talking about something that might sound simple on the surface but actually has massive impact when it’s done right.

Fraud Awareness Week.

Now I want to double click on something right away.

Fraud Awareness Week is not just a campaign.

It’s a global movement focused on strengthening fraud prevention culture through education, leadership engagement, and fraud prevention awareness.

And the reason this matters so much is because fraud prevention does not start with alerts or algorithms.

It starts with people.

Informed employees.
Prepared leadership.
And communities that understand fraud risk and know how to respond.

In this episode, I sat down with John Duffley, Communications Director at the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners, to talk about how International Fraud Awareness Week grew into a worldwide initiative and why fraud awareness programs still produce measurable prevention impact across industries.

Because when fraud awareness becomes part of your culture, not just a one week event, prevention outcomes change dramatically.

What you’ll hear in this episode

• How Fraud Awareness Week strengthens fraud prevention culture across organizations
• The global growth of International Fraud Awareness Week
• Creative fraud awareness campaigns organizations can launch with limited resources
• Why fraud awareness training improves early fraud detection awareness
• How ACFE fraud awareness resources help organizations build fraud education initiatives

You should listen to this episode if

• You lead fraud prevention or risk programs
• You oversee compliance, audit, or fraud awareness training
• You want to strengthen fraud prevention culture in your organization
• You are building fraud awareness for banks or fraud awareness for credit unions
• You want measurable fraud awareness ROI from education programs

If you liked this episode, be sure to subscribe and review the podcast on iTunes, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you listen. It helps more fraud fighters find these conversations.

Episode notes & key takeaways

Before we double click on the notes, I just want to say that my marketing team told me I need to structure these notes a certain way in order for people to find my podcast. The below is a bit of that 😀

Fraud awareness week works when the whole organization pays attention

Fraud awareness cannot live inside the fraud team alone.

If only investigators are thinking about fraud risk, important signals get missed.

Fraud Awareness Week works best when the entire organization is paying attention.

Leadership.
Frontline employees.
Operations teams.
Compliance.
Customer support.

Because many fraud cases are not first discovered by analysts.

They are noticed by someone who sees something that does not feel right.

A strange payment request.
An unusual vendor change.
A customer behaving differently than expected.

When organizations treat fraud awareness as a shared responsibility instead of a compliance exercise, reporting improves and fraud gets caught earlier.

Most fraud is first spotted by people, not systems

Let’s reset the room for a second.

A lot of fraud is not caught by technology.

It is caught by someone paying attention.

An employee notices a payment instruction that seems unusual.
A customer service representative hears a story that does not add up.
An analyst spots behavior that feels inconsistent with the account history.

That is why fraud awareness training matters.

When employees understand how fraud actually works, they are far more likely to escalate concerns instead of ignoring them.

And early escalation is often the difference between stopping fraud and discovering it too late.

Fraud awareness is not a once-a-year exercise

Fraud prevention culture does not come from a single training session.

It comes from repetition.

Organizations that take fraud awareness seriously keep the conversation active throughout the year.

Teams share real fraud cases.
Investigators explain how scams actually unfold.
Managers remind employees what signals to watch for.

The goal is simple.

Make fraud awareness part of how people think about risk every day.

Because when employees are comfortable raising concerns, fraud gets surfaced faster.

Fraud awareness does not require a huge budget

One thing John and I talk about in this episode is how accessible ACFE resources have become.

Organizations do not need massive programs or expensive campaigns to participate.

Even simple steps can make a difference.

Sharing fraud education with employees.
Posting scam awareness guidance for customers.
Running internal discussions about recent fraud cases.

The ACFE has made it easier than ever for organizations to participate in International Fraud Awareness Week by providing toolkits and materials that teams can use immediately.

Fraud awareness strengthens the entire community

Fraud prevention does not stop inside the organization.

Customers, members, and the broader public are all part of the fraud prevention ecosystem.

That is why many institutions expand awareness efforts during Fraud Awareness Week.

They host scam education webinars.
Share fraud prevention tips with customers.
Run community outreach programs.

Because the more people understand how fraud works, the harder it becomes for criminals to succeed.

And that ultimately makes the entire system stronger.