Fraud investigation trends with Frank McKenna: What 30 years in fraud teaches us
Episode \#No episode number
Guest: Frank McKenna
Today I’m talking with Frank McKenna, someone a lot of fraud fighters already know through his work, his pattern recognition, and especially through his blog, Frank on Fraud. If you’ve spent any time in this industry, chances are you’ve read his analysis at some point. And for good reason.
Frank has spent three decades working across banking fraud trends, auto loan fraud, and credit card fraud. So this conversation is not just about one fraud type or one moment in the market. It is about what changes, what stays the same, and what experienced fraud people learn when they’ve watched criminals, controls, and technology keep evolving over time.
This is one of those episodes that matters because it goes beyond headlines. We get into Frank’s path into fraud, why he stayed in it, and how fraud prevention collaboration has shaped the way he looks at investigations, trends, and strategy. And honestly, that part stands out. Because the longer you work in fraud, the more obvious it becomes that no one solves much in a silo.
Here is what that perspective means in practice:
- Long-term fraud investigation trends are easier to spot when you have context across industries
- Fraud prevention strategies improve when teams share lessons instead of guarding them
- Banking fraud trends, credit card fraud, and auto loan fraud often reveal connected patterns
- Strong fraud programs pay attention to both technology shifts and human behavior shifts
What you’ll hear in this episode:
- How Frank built a career across banking, lending, and card fraud over 30 years
- Why fraud investigation trends only make sense when you understand the history behind them
- How fraud prevention collaboration helps expose patterns that individual teams might miss
- What fraudster behavior changes look like over time, even when the core playbook feels familiar
- Why fraud news analysis and industry education still matter for smart fraud teams
You should listen to this episode if you:
- Work in fraud, risk, trust and safety, or investigations and want more perspective on where the industry has been
- Follow banking fraud trends, auto loan fraud, or credit card fraud and want to understand how they connect
- Care about fraud prevention collaboration and learning from peers across sectors
- Want practical fraud expert commentary instead of generic trend summaries
- Are building your own fraud career and want to learn from someone who has stayed relevant through constant change
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Episode notes & key takeaways
Why fraud investigation trends matter more when you know the history
Let’s break this down.
One of the reasons I wanted to revisit this conversation is that Frank brings something a lot of fraud content does not. Context. He has seen fraud evolve across banking, auto loans, and credit cards, which means he is not reacting to every new tactic like it appeared out of nowhere. He is looking at what changed, what simply got repackaged, and what teams should actually pay attention to.
That matters.
Because fraud investigation trends are easy to misunderstand when they get stripped from the bigger picture. A new tool shows up. A new scam gets attention. A new channel becomes popular. And suddenly everyone acts like the whole industry changed overnight. Usually, it did not. More often, the pressure points changed, the scale changed, or the speed changed.
Here’s what’s actually happening:
- Fraud investigation trends become more useful when they are tied to long-term pattern recognition
- Fraudster behavior changes often build on older methods rather than replacing them completely
- Fraud news analysis is more valuable when it separates signal from noise
- Fraud industry insights are strongest when they come from operators who have seen multiple cycles
How collaboration makes fraud teams smarter
This is where things get interesting.
Frank is probably best known publicly for Frank on Fraud, and that matters because the blog is not just commentary. It is a collaboration engine. It pulls together fraud news analysis, industry observations, and examples from different corners of the ecosystem in a way that helps fraud teams connect dots faster.
Right.
And that is a big deal in this field.
Fraud prevention collaboration is one of those things everyone says they value, but not everyone actually invests in. Good fraud teams learn from peers. Great fraud teams build systems for that learning. They stay plugged into what other industries are seeing, what adjacent teams are fighting, and what tactics are starting to travel from one vertical to another.
That usually leads to better decisions.
- Fraud prevention collaboration helps teams identify attack patterns earlier
- Fraud industry education gives practitioners more than just point-in-time awareness
- Financial fraud thought leadership is useful when it stays practical and grounded
- Fraud prevention blog content can be a real intelligence source when it is written by experienced operators
What banking, auto loan, and credit card fraud can teach each other
At first glance, these may sound like separate worlds. But when you look closer, they really are not.
Banking fraud trends, auto loan fraud, and credit card fraud all show different versions of the same core problem. Attackers look for weak verification, inconsistent controls, slow information sharing, and businesses that are optimized for growth without enough resilience behind the scenes. The details change. The incentives do not.
And that matters for fraud teams.
Because one of the fastest ways to miss risk is to assume your vertical is somehow too unique to learn from anyone else. We have seen this playbook before. The methods criminals use in one space often show up in another once the economics make sense.
So when Frank talks about multiple sectors, that is not just career trivia. It is a better way to understand fraud prevention strategies across the board.
- Banking fraud trends often highlight identity, account, and payment weaknesses that appear elsewhere too
- Auto loan fraud shows how application fraud and verification gaps can scale quickly
- Credit card fraud remains one of the clearest windows into shifting criminal behavior
- Cross-industry learning helps fraud teams build stronger, more durable defenses
Why experienced fraud voices still matter
There is a reason conversations like this hold up.
Frank brings fraud expert commentary that comes from actually doing the work, watching the industry shift, and continuing to stay engaged with what is happening now. That combination matters a lot more than polished takes or recycled headlines. Especially in fraud.
Honestly, that is one of the reasons I wanted this episode in the Fraudology archive.
If you are newer to the industry, this is a strong reminder that fraud career growth is not about memorizing terms or chasing every new buzzword. It is about building judgment. And if you have been in this field for a while, it is a good reminder that staying curious is part of the job too.
- Fraud career in fraud is built through pattern recognition, curiosity, and consistency
- Anti-fraud technology matters, but judgment still matters just as much
- Experienced operators often see the implications behind trends faster than everyone else
- The best fraud prevention strategies usually combine shared knowledge, historical context, and practical action
The big takeaway from this episode is pretty simple. Fraud investigation trends make more sense when you learn from people who have watched the industry change over time and stayed curious enough to keep connecting dots. Frank brings that perspective. And for fraud teams trying to stay sharp, that kind of context is incredibly useful.
