Guest: Hailey Windham
If you have worked in fraud for any length of time, you have probably felt this at some point. Your team is expected to protect customers and the business, but a lot of the company may not fully understand what you do, why it matters, or how often fraud touches their part of the organization too. That disconnect is exactly why I wanted to have this conversation.
In this episode, I talk with Hailey Windham from SAFE Federal Credit Union about fraud collaborations, and honestly, I think this is one of the most important operational topics fraud teams can focus on. Because fraud does not work well in isolation. It may look specialized, sensitive, or unpredictable from the outside, but that does not mean it should stay siloed.
Hailey shares how she got started in banking fraud prevention, how the work became more of a mission than just a job, and how she intentionally built internal fraud partnerships across her organization. What I really like here is that this is not about forcing visibility for the sake of it. It is about building a more holistic fraud strategy, improving customer fraud education, and making it easier for more employees to recognize and report suspicious activity before members are harmed.
And that matters.
Because when fraud teams are seen only as a cost center or a back-office blocker, companies miss a huge opportunity. But when fraud collaborations are strong, you get better scam prevention culture, better fraud process improvement, and better outcomes for the people you are trying to protect.
Here is what that fraud collaboration mindset means in practice:
- I cannot build strong fraud outcomes if the rest of the organization does not understand where fraud intersects with their work
- I create more effective fraud collaborations when I treat other departments like partners instead of outsiders
- I strengthen scam prevention culture when I make fraud relevant to employees who are not on the fraud team
- I improve fraud department value when I connect fraud efforts to member protection, education, and business impact
What you’ll hear in this episode:
- How Hailey got started in banking fraud prevention and why the work became personal
- Why fraud collaborations matter so much inside credit union fraud operations and financial institutions
- How internal fraud partnerships can lead to a more holistic fraud strategy
- Why customer fraud education and member scam prevention improve when more teams are involved
- How suspicious activity reporting becomes stronger when employees across the company feel empowered to participate
You should listen to this episode if you:
- Want stronger fraud collaborations across your organization
- Are trying to improve fraud team collaboration and cross-department fraud support
- Need better leadership alignment around fraud department value
- Work in banking fraud prevention, credit union fraud operations, or member scam prevention
- Want practical ideas for building anti-fraud culture and fraud awareness across teams
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
Why fraud collaborations matter more than many companies realize
Let’s break this down.
One of the biggest themes in this conversation is that fraud teams often have to prove their value inside organizations that do not always understand the full scope of the work. I have seen this over and over. Fraud can look invisible when things are going well, and highly inconvenient when teams need to slow something down. That is not exactly the best setup for internal support.
But that is also why fraud collaborations matter so much.
If the rest of the business only sees fraud as a cost center, a gatekeeper, or a department that says no, then it becomes much harder to build trust, get buy-in, and create better outcomes. On the other hand, when I help teams understand how fraud intersects with their work, from customer service to operations to leadership, the whole picture changes.
That is where the phrase fraud must make friends really lands.
Because this is not about popularity. It is about effectiveness. I need internal fraud partnerships if I want more people to recognize risk, escalate concerns, and help prevent losses before they get bigger.
- I build stronger fraud collaborations when I make fraud relevant to the goals of other teams
- I improve fraud department value when I explain fraud in terms the broader business understands
- I create more durable internal fraud partnerships when I focus on shared outcomes, not just fraud policy
- I strengthen anti-fraud culture when fraud is seen as part of the business, not separate from it
How a holistic fraud strategy starts with understanding other teams
Here’s what’s actually happening.
Hailey talks about taking the time to learn more about how fraud affected other departments throughout the company, and I think that is one of the smartest things any fraud leader can do. Because if I do not understand where fraud shows up for other teams, I am probably going to miss opportunities to improve processes in a way that actually sticks.
This is where a holistic fraud strategy starts.
Not with a dashboard. Not with a policy memo. With curiosity. With listening. With understanding where pain points already exist and where fraud is creating friction, confusion, or losses outside the fraud team itself. Once I understand that, I can build better process changes and stronger cross-department fraud support.
And honestly, that is usually where the biggest progress happens.
Fraud process improvement gets a lot easier when it is grounded in how the organization actually works. Not how I assume it works from inside one function.
- I create a more holistic fraud strategy when I learn how other teams experience fraud risk
- I improve fraud process improvement when changes reflect real operational pain points
- I build better cross-department fraud support when I listen before I prescribe
- I make fraud team collaboration more effective when I connect fraud controls to everyday business reality
Why customer fraud education and member scam prevention improve with broader support
This is where things get interesting.
When more employees understand fraud, more people can help prevent it. That sounds simple. But it is a really important shift. Too many organizations assume fraud should stay with the fraud team, as if education loses value once it leaves that lane. In my experience, the opposite is usually true.
Hailey shares how getting non-fraud-focused employees involved in identifying and reporting suspicious activity led to more empowerment, better morale, and fewer members being victimized by fraud and scams. That is a big deal.
Because customer fraud education and member scam prevention do not happen only in investigations. They happen in conversations. In front-line interactions. In moments when someone notices that something is off and feels confident enough to say so.
That is the kind of scam prevention culture I want more companies to build.
It is practical. It is collaborative. And it respects the reality that fraud signals often show up long before they reach the formal fraud queue.
- I improve customer fraud education when more teams understand the warning signs customers face
- I strengthen member scam prevention when employees feel empowered to report suspicious activity
- I create better suspicious activity reporting when fraud knowledge is distributed more broadly
- I build stronger fraud awareness across teams when I treat education as an operational advantage
Why anti-fraud culture depends on trust, visibility, and shared ownership
A strong anti-fraud culture does not happen because one team works harder than everyone else. It happens when the organization understands that fraud prevention is connected to customer trust, business health, and daily decision-making.
That is why I think this conversation is so useful.
Hailey is not just talking about fraud theory. She is showing what it looks like when a fraud professional builds trust inside the company, increases visibility into the work, and helps people see that fraud touches more than they realized. And once that happens, support gets easier to build.
Right.
Because people are much more likely to engage when they understand both the purpose and the practical value.
For me, that is one of the clearest lessons in this episode. If I want stronger fraud collaborations, I need to help other teams understand where they fit, why their perspective matters, and how shared ownership leads to better outcomes for members and the institution.
- I build anti-fraud culture when I make fraud work visible and understandable
- I create stronger fraud collaborations when employees feel included instead of kept at a distance
- I improve fraud team collaboration when shared ownership replaces siloed thinking
- I make credit union fraud operations stronger when more of the organization participates in prevention
The big takeaway from this episode is pretty straightforward. Fraud collaborations are not optional if I want fraud prevention to scale inside an organization. In my conversation with Hailey, that comes through clearly. The more I build internal fraud partnerships, strengthen customer fraud education, improve suspicious activity reporting, and create cross-department fraud support, the more likely I am to build a fraud program that protects members and earns trust across the company too.
