Guest: Gilit Saporta and Shoshana Maraney
Today I’m talking with Gilit Saporta and Shoshana Maraney about something I honestly think this industry has needed for a very long time, a real practical fraud prevention book built for the people actually doing the work.
That’s what stood out to me about this conversation right away.
For more than 20 years, fraud fighters in ecommerce and fintech have learned through a mix of trial and error, peer conversations, conference notes, Slack threads, vendor decks, and a whole lot of figuring it out as they go. That can work. Sometimes. But it also leaves too much foundational knowledge scattered everywhere. So when someone finally creates a resource focused on online fraud fundamentals, fraud and AML analytics, and how to apply that knowledge in the real world, I think that matters.
And it matters even more because Gilit and Shoshana did not approach this like outsiders writing about fraud from a distance. They built Practical Fraud Prevention as practitioners, with a strong focus on fraud prevention collaboration, useful analytics, and what fraud teams actually need to know to get better at the work.
Here is what that means in practice:
- I see practical fraud prevention as more than a book topic, it is the difference between guessing and building stronger systems on purpose
- I think fraud analyst training gets a lot better when teams have shared language, shared frameworks, and real examples
- I’ve seen how fraud prevention collaboration makes teams sharper, faster, and a lot less isolated
- I believe anti-fraud education matters most when it is useful on Monday morning, not just interesting on paper
What you’ll hear in this episode:
- Why Gilit and Shoshana decided the industry needed a practical fraud prevention book
- What they learned while interviewing experts across ecommerce fraud prevention and fintech fraud analytics
- Why fraud prevention collaboration kept showing up as one of the most important themes
- How fraud and AML analytics fit into the day-to-day reality of fraud work
- Why SQL for fraud detection, Python for fraud prevention, and strong fundamentals matter for modern fraud teams
You should listen to this episode if you:
- Work in fraud, risk, trust and safety, AML, or analytics and want stronger practical fraud prevention foundations
- Care about fraud analyst training and building better fraud detection frameworks
- Want a clearer view of online fraud fundamentals and practical fraud strategies
- Are interested in ecommerce fraud prevention, fintech fraud analytics, or AML and fraud analytics
- Believe the fraud prevention community needs more useful, shared fraud prevention resources
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
In this episode, I talk with Gilit and Shoshana about why writing a practical fraud prevention book matters so much for this industry, and why collaboration, education, and stronger analytics foundations are still some of the biggest gaps fraud teams are trying to close.
Why practical fraud prevention needed a real playbook
Let’s break this down.
One of the first things that stood out to me in this conversation is just how strange it is that fraud has been a serious industry for this long without a true how-to resource built around practical fraud prevention. We have had smart people. We have had strong operators. We have had amazing pockets of knowledge. But a lot of that knowledge has stayed fragmented.
That usually means people learn the hard way.
And in fraud, learning the hard way can get expensive pretty quickly. So the fact that Gilit and Shoshana created a fraud prevention book focused on actual practice, not just theory, feels overdue in the best possible way. It gives fraud fighters something this industry has needed for years, a stronger foundation.
- I think practical fraud prevention becomes much more scalable when teams have a shared resource to learn from
- I’ve seen how online fraud fundamentals often get skipped because teams are too busy solving the next problem
- I believe fraud prevention resources are most useful when they reduce guesswork and speed up judgment
- I see this kind of anti-fraud education as a way to make the whole industry stronger, not just individual teams
Why fraud and AML analytics belong in the same conversation
Here’s what’s actually happening.
A lot of teams still separate fraud work and AML work more than they probably should. Different queues. Different teams. Different priorities. Different tooling. Sometimes that is necessary. But the underlying analytical mindset has a lot of overlap, and that is one reason I liked this book topic so much.
Because fraud and AML analytics are both about patterns.
They are about looking at behavior, connections, anomalies, and signals in a way that helps you make smarter decisions. Different use cases, yes. But a lot of the same analytical discipline. And when teams understand that better, the work gets more thoughtful and a lot more connected.
That matters.
- I think fraud and AML analytics are stronger when teams understand the overlap in how patterns are detected
- I’ve seen AML and fraud analytics create better outcomes when they are treated as complementary, not completely separate
- I believe fraud detection frameworks improve when teams learn to think across connected risk problems
- I see stronger analytics as one of the clearest paths to more durable practical fraud strategies
Why collaboration keeps showing up as the real differentiator
This is where things get especially interesting.
When Gilit and Shoshana talk about the lessons that kept surfacing while building the book, collaboration is right at the top. That did not surprise me at all. Because for all the talk about tools and models and signals, some of the best fraud work still comes down to people learning from each other.
Right.
Fraud prevention collaboration matters inside a company, across teams, and across the wider fraud prevention community. It matters because no single person sees everything. No single team catches every pattern first. And no company is so unique that it cannot learn from someone else’s scars.
We’ve seen this playbook before.
The teams that isolate themselves usually move slower. The teams that share, compare notes, and stay curious usually get better faster.
- I think fraud prevention collaboration is one of the most reliable ways to improve judgment and speed
- I’ve seen the fraud prevention community become much more useful when people share real lessons instead of polished talking points
- I believe anti-fraud education works best when it is connected to active peer learning
- I see collaboration as one of the most practical fraud strategies any team can invest in
Why technical skills still matter for modern fraud teams
I also really liked that this conversation did not stay at the big-picture level only. Because practical fraud prevention is not just about mindset. It is also about skills. SQL for fraud detection. Python for fraud prevention. Analytical thinking. Clear frameworks. All of that matters.
Not because every fraud fighter needs to become a full-time engineer.
But because stronger technical fluency makes teams more effective. It helps people ask better questions, test ideas faster, validate assumptions more clearly, and rely a little less on black-box thinking. And honestly, that is one of the healthiest shifts happening in fraud work right now.
- I think fraud analyst training is stronger when technical skills are treated as practical tools, not optional extras
- I’ve seen SQL for fraud detection help teams move from intuition to evidence much faster
- I believe Python for fraud prevention becomes valuable when it helps analysts test and automate real work
- I see technical fluency as one of the building blocks of better fraud detection frameworks
Why this matters for the future of fraud teams
What I kept coming back to in this conversation is that a resource like this does more than help one analyst or one team. It helps professionalize the work more broadly. It gives newer fraud fighters a better entry point. It gives experienced people a shared reference. And it gives the industry something more durable than scattered notes and tribal knowledge.
That is a big deal.
Especially in a field where a lot of people still arrive by accident, learn under pressure, and build expertise while trying not to drown in the queue. A stronger practical fraud prevention foundation makes that path less chaotic. And honestly, that is good for everyone.
The big takeaway from this episode is pretty straightforward. Practical fraud prevention is not just a book title, it is a much-needed step toward making fraud education, analytics, and collaboration more accessible for the people doing this work every day. That is why this conversation with Gilit and Shoshana matters, and why I think a lot of fraud fighters will see themselves in it.
