Fraud Frontlines: Key Insights from the Fraud Leaders' Miami Summit!

Here are some of the most compelling sessions and insights Davide Villa of Edgar, Dunn & Company believed came out of it! 

Catch Me If You Can: Outsmarting Synthetic Identity Fraud

Experts explored how fraudsters are using AI and deepfakes to generate synthetic identities at scale and what merchants can do to spot them early, including advanced graph analytics and cross-system behavior monitoring. Investing in real-time identity intelligence is crucial to avoid risking being outgunned.

The Invisible Fraud: Unmasking Account Takeover

The session deep dived into subtle ATO attacks, like credential stuffing and session hijacking, and how invisible they can be. Behavioral biometrics, device fingerprinting, and intelligent monitoring can be used to spot takeover in action. Not being able to catch ATO while it is happening you can’t catch it live, you’re always a step behind.

AI vs. AI: The Battle Between Fraudsters and Fraud Fighters

In breakout sessions, attendees shared real-world scenarios and tools where machine learning and automation weren’t just buzzwords, but they were actively being deployed to identify anomalies faster than attackers.

The key message from the conversations was that collaboration between solution providers, financial institutions, and merchants can help calibrate AI faster and better.

The Wolf Within: Spotting Insider Fraud Before It Strikes

This session tackled a less-visible threat: insider fraud. Using behavioral analytics and internal risk signals, especially as employees gain more system access, was a recurring theme. You can’t assume your team won’t be the risk, but they need to be part of the protection.

The Money Heist: Tackling Money Laundering

Speakers discussed new laundering techniques and enforcement trends, the evolving role of fraud teams in AML and KYC processes, especially as networks integrate AML checks earlier in the payments journey. Businesses need to treat fraud and AML as part of a wholistic fraud protection strategy.

Summit takeaways

• Fraud isn’t just a tech issue, but it is evolving to become a data and workflow issue. AI helps, but tools need integration, validation, and real-time tuning over time. Implementing these systems early is crucial to enable refinements of these technologies.
• Collaboration between fraud, customer experience, and ops teams, as well as across merchants, issuers, and networks, is no longer optional but it’s how you build resilience.
• Friendly fraud, synthetic scams, and insider threats are converging. No single siloes: there is a need for a unified, cross-functional approach.
• Policy and compliance must catch up to the tech. Another huge topic across the sessions was agentic commerce – it is not hypothetical, it’s coming, and the entire ecosystem needs to be ready for the changes it is going to bring from a fraud perspective.

"Thanks to the organizers for creating a space where we weren’t talking buzzwords - we were talking real risk, real tech, and real change!" - Davide Villa | Edgar, Dunn & Company