Guest: Tin Cheung & Holly Sandberg
Today I am talking about fraud and payments strategy, and this is one of those topics that sounds obvious until you see how often companies still treat these functions like parallel tracks instead of connected ones. Because when an ecommerce or marketplace business expands into a new market or adds a new payment method, fraud and payments are not working on separate problems. They are looking at different sides of the same decision.
I sat down with Tin Cheung and Holly Sandberg from Ticketmaster to talk about what coordinated strategy actually looks like when a company is growing globally, serving different customer payment preferences, and trying to reduce risk without creating unnecessary friction. And honestly, this is where a lot of expansion efforts either get stronger or start to wobble.
Because ecommerce expansion fraud is rarely just about one bad actor or one isolated risk. It is about whether the business understands how customer behavior changes by market, whether current vendors can support the next phase of growth, whether payment compliance strategy is keeping up, and whether teams are making decisions with the same view of the tradeoffs.
That is the part that matters.
This conversation gets into the tactical side of payments and fraud alignment, but it also goes wider than that. Tin and Holly talk about leadership, strategy creation, cross-functional fraud collaboration, and how to do what is best for both the business and the customer. And that is really the point. A strong fraud and payments strategy is not just about preventing loss. It is about making growth possible in a way that is sustainable, coordinated, and smart.
Here is what that fraud and payments strategy means in practice:
- I need fraud and payments teams aligned early when the business expands into new markets or payment methods
- I need to evaluate new payment method risk and fraud risk in new markets together, not in silos
- I need cross-functional fraud collaboration that supports both customer experience and business goals
- I need a global ecommerce strategy that reflects how customers actually want to pay
What you’ll hear in this episode:
- Why fraud and payments strategy becomes more important during ecommerce expansion fraud planning
- How global payments acceptance and market expansion fraud considerations intersect
- What strong payments and fraud alignment looks like when new payment methods are introduced
- Why merchant of record risk, compliance, and customer experience need to be considered together
- How global fraud leadership and mentorship shape better strategy and execution
You should listen to this episode if you:
- Work in fraud, payments, ecommerce, marketplace operations, or risk strategy
- Need a stronger framework for fraud and payments alignment during expansion
- Are evaluating new payment method risk, payment fraud prevention, or fraud risk in new markets
- Want better cross-functional fraud collaboration between payments, product, compliance, and fraud teams
- Care about customer payment preferences, multilingual payment experience, and sustainable global growth
If you liked this episode, be sure to subscribe and review the podcast on iTunes, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you listen to podcasts. It really helps with getting the word out.
Episode notes & key takeaways
This episode is a really practical look at what happens when growth decisions stop being theoretical and start affecting real payment flows, real customer experiences, and real risk exposure. Fraud and payments strategy only works when both teams understand how their priorities connect, especially when the business is expanding across markets, currencies, languages, and payment methods.
Why fraud and payments strategy matters most during expansion
Let’s break this down.
One of the clearest themes in this conversation is that expansion makes existing gaps a lot easier to see. If fraud and payments are loosely aligned when the business is stable, that may be manageable for a while. Once the company enters a new market or launches a new payment option, those disconnects get more expensive.
That usually does not end well.
A strong fraud and payments strategy matters because expansion changes customer behavior, operational requirements, and risk exposure all at once. New markets bring different patterns. New payment methods bring new failure points. And the business still expects a smooth customer experience on top of all of it. That means ecommerce expansion fraud cannot be treated like a fraud-only issue, and global payments acceptance cannot be treated like a payments-only issue.
The key thing to understand is that both teams are working toward the same larger goal. Support growth without creating unacceptable risk for the customer or the business. That takes coordination, not handoffs.
- Fraud and payments strategy becomes more valuable as business complexity increases
- Ecommerce expansion fraud creates new risk patterns that need shared visibility
- Global payments acceptance decisions should account for fraud, compliance, and customer behavior together
- Payments and fraud alignment helps businesses grow without creating preventable gaps
How new payment methods and new markets change the risk picture
Here’s what’s actually happening.
When a company expands into a new region or adds a new payment option, the risk environment changes whether the business is ready for it or not. Customer payment preferences may be different. Approval patterns may shift. Fraud tactics may look different. Vendor capabilities may not translate cleanly. And regulatory or merchant of record risk can show up in ways the team did not have to think about before.
That is a problem.
This is why new payment method risk and fraud risk in new markets have to be assessed together. If I only focus on acceptance, I may miss abuse. If I only focus on fraud, I may block legitimate growth. The smarter approach is to map the tradeoffs before the rollout, not after the losses or support issues start piling up.
Tin and Holly do a good job of bringing this down to the operational level. The goal is not abstract alignment. It is knowing how a change affects the customer, the business, the vendors, and the risk posture all at once.
- New payment method risk should be evaluated alongside customer experience and fraud exposure
- Fraud risk in new markets often reflects different customer norms and attack patterns
- Merchant of record risk can become more important as expansion adds legal and operational complexity
- Payment fraud prevention gets stronger when rollout decisions include cross-functional review
Why cross-functional collaboration is the real operating model
This is where things get interesting.
A lot of companies talk about collaboration as if it is a soft skill or a nice extra. In this context, it really is not. Cross-functional fraud collaboration is the operating model. Without it, fraud, payments, product, and compliance end up solving for their own goals in ways that create problems for everyone else.
Right.
This episode makes a strong case for why fraud operations strategy works better when teams are connected early and often. Payments teams understand acceptance, network dynamics, and customer payment preferences. Fraud teams understand abuse patterns, controls, and downstream loss risk. Compliance teams understand regulatory and merchant obligations. Product teams understand how changes affect the experience. If those views do not come together, the business is making partial decisions.
And partial decisions in global ecommerce usually get expensive fast.
- Cross-functional fraud collaboration helps prevent siloed decisions during growth
- Fraud operations strategy improves when payments, fraud, and compliance share context early
- Payments and fraud alignment leads to better tradeoff decisions across the customer journey
- Global ecommerce strategy depends on coordinated execution, not isolated expertise
How customer experience and risk strategy have to work together
One thing I really appreciated in this conversation is that Tin and Holly do not frame growth as a choice between customer experience and risk control. They talk about the need to create processes that let customers pay how they want to pay, in the language and currency they want, without exposing the business or the customer to unnecessary risk.
And honestly, that is exactly the right lens.
Because multilingual payment experience, local payment expectations, and customer payment preferences are not side issues during expansion. They are central to whether the expansion actually works. If the payment experience feels foreign, confusing, or overly restrictive, customers drop. If the controls are too loose, the losses show up elsewhere. Neither outcome is a win.
This is why fraud and payments strategy has to be customer-aware. Not just technically correct. Customer-aware. Growth depends on whether the business can support local expectations while still holding the line on payment fraud prevention and broader risk management.
- Customer payment preferences should shape how expansion strategies are designed
- Multilingual payment experience can improve conversion and trust in new markets
- Fraud and payments strategy works best when controls support legitimate customer behavior
- Payment fraud prevention should protect growth, not quietly undermine it
Why leadership and humility matter in global strategy execution
This might not seem like a big deal. But in fraud prevention, it absolutely is.
Another strength of this conversation is that it does not stop at tactics. Tin and Holly also talk about global fraud leadership, mentorship, and the value of working across specialties with humility. And that matters because expansion strategy is rarely executed perfectly from one function alone.
The more complex the business gets, the more important it becomes for leaders to learn from each other. A strong payments leader can sharpen fraud thinking. A strong fraud leader can sharpen payments decisions. And when both sides respect what the other sees, the strategy gets better.
We have seen this playbook before. The companies that handle complexity well usually are not the ones with the loudest process. They are the ones with leaders who listen, adapt, and make space for shared expertise. Not exactly flashy. Very effective.
- Global fraud leadership gets stronger when leaders learn across disciplines
- Mentorship and humility improve strategy creation and execution
- Payments and fraud alignment often reflects leadership behavior as much as process design
- Better collaboration usually starts with leaders willing to work outside their own lane
The big takeaway from this episode is pretty straightforward. Fraud and payments strategy is not a side conversation during growth. It is part of the foundation. When businesses expand into new markets or new payment methods, the fraud, payments, compliance, and product decisions all start affecting each other much more directly. Tin and Holly do a great job of showing what it looks like when those decisions are made with coordination, humility, and a clear view of both customer needs and business risk. And honestly, that is the kind of thinking global teams need more of.
