What The Fraud?

"What happens when an attacker gains control of your AI agent and the outside world believes everything it does... is you?"AI agents are already booking travel, managing calendars, and handling day-to-day tasks for millions of people. But as they gain access to our accounts, finances, and personal data, a new question emerges: how do you tell a legitimate agent from a hijacked one?Our guest this week is Mick Amelishko, AI advocate and Senior Engineering Manager at Sumsub, who lives at the intersection of AI development and fraud risk every single day. Mick breaks down what AI agents actually are, why they're so powerful, and why that power makes them an increasingly attractive target for bad actors.From compromised personal assistants and prompt injection attacks to the emerging concept of Know Your Agent (KYA), this conversation explores what happens when automation becomes indistinguishable from real user behaviour. We look at how fraudsters can weaponise agent access to drain accounts, impersonate users, and cause damage across multiple platforms, and what businesses and individuals can do about it.Sumsub's Website: sumsub.comSumsub's LinkedIn: linkedin.com/sumsubSumsub's Instagram: instagram.com/sumsubcomSumsub on X: x.com/SumsubcomSumsub's YouTube Channel: youtube.com/@sumsubcomThomas Taraniuk on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/tomtaraniukMick Amelishko on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/amelishko

“What happens when a fraudster doesn’t steal an identity… but builds one from scratch?”Synthetic identities are one of the fastest-growing threats in financial crime. Built from fragments of real and fabricated data, these identities can pass onboarding checks, behave like legitimate users for months or even years, and then suddenly “bust out”, leaving businesses with significant losses.Our special guest this week is Steve Lenderman. Drawing on decades of experience investigating fraud, Steve shares how synthetic identities are created, how they evolve over time, and why this threat has grown from a credit-card problem into a global issue affecting fintech, payroll, government programs, and beyond.From bot-generated identities and AI-assisted fraud to sleeper accounts, bust-out schemes, and synthetic businesses, this conversation explores how organized crime groups and even nation-state actors are scaling these attacks. We also look at why collaboration between industries is critical, how behavioural and device intelligence can reveal hidden patterns, and what companies can do to detect synthetic identities before the damage is done.Mentioned in this episode – how Device Intelligence detects synthetic identities early: https://sumsub.link/ykmSumsub’s Website: sumsub.comSumsub’s LinkedIn: linkedin.com/sumsubSumsub’s Instagram: instagram.com/sumsubcomSumsub on X: x.com/SumsubcomSumsub’s YouTube Channel: youtube.com/@sumsubcomThomas Taraniuk on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/tomtaraniukSteve Lenderman on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/steve-lenderman

Fraud in iGaming is shaping how operators grow, how regulators respond, and where investors place bets. Recorded live at ICE Barcelona in partnership with the C-Suite Podcast, this is Part 2 of our special What The Fraud? series on the widening global fraud landscape in iGaming.Kris Galloway, iGaming Product Evangelist at Sumsub, took over hosting duties and he was joined by: Daniel Xavier, COO, BetMGM Brazil Andrew Wright, Managing Director UK & Ireland, LeoVegas Group Adrianna Samuels, Vice President - Senior Client Partner | Gaming, GlobantTorben Friis, Manging Director - Global Head of Distribution, Match LiquidityThey cover the tension between player acquisition and fraud prevention, the ongoing challenge of unlicensed operators, Brazil’s evolving regulatory framework, why fraud risk is increasingly part of financial due diligence and investment decisions, and how major events like this year’s World Cup can open up new fraud angles for sportsbooks. From bonus abuse and multi-accounting to AI-driven threats, the episode maps how the risk environment is shifting for operators worldwide.Sumsub's website: sumsub.comSumsub's LinkedIn: linkedin.com/sumsubSumsub's Instagram: instagram.com/sumsubcomSumsub on X: x.com/SumsubcomSumsub's YouTube Channel: youtube.com/@sumsubcom

Unlicensed operators and AI-enabled fraud are scaling faster than most safeguards. Regulators, operators, and tech providers are being forced to rethink what “player protection” actually means, and how to enforce it across borders. This is Part 1 of 2 special episodes of the What The Fraud? podcast, recorded live at ICE Barcelona.Guest host Kris Galloway, iGaming Product Evangelist speaks with Olabimpe Akingba, Head of Responsible Gaming at pawaTech, Ludovico Calvi, Honorary President of United Lotteries for Integrity in Sports, and Sarah Gardner, Deputy Chief Executive Officer at UK Gambling Commission, about where the market is breaking: responsible gaming that goes beyond box-ticking, industrialised fraud networks, underage exposure risks, and the uncomfortable reality that no single stakeholder can solve this alone.They dig into what actually moves the needle: better use of data, clearer player education, and tighter cooperation between regulators, operators, technology providers, and law enforcement. The takeaway is simple: safe, sustainable gaming will be decided by how well the industry can coordinate enforcement and prevention across jurisdictions, not by adding more isolated controls.Sumsub's website: sumsub.comSumsub's LinkedIn: linkedin.com/sumsubSumsub's Instagram: instagram.com/sumsubcomSumsub on X: x.com/SumsubcomSumsub's YouTube Channel: youtube.com/@sumsubcom

"We can't possibly think of victims as being stupid." We often think of fraud victims as gullible or careless. But what if the real story is about ruthless targeting by increasingly sophisticated criminals? What if AI, deepfakes and quantum computing are making it impossible to tell what's real anymore?Our guest in this episode is Alex Wood, counter fraud expert, international keynote speaker, part of the BBC Radio 4 Scam Secrets team and, in a former life, a prolific fraudster who spent 20 years defrauding victims of millions before serving three prison sentences and turning his life around. Alex joins host Thomas Taraniuk to discuss the sophistication shift, where fraud attempts are dropping but success rates are climbing, powered by AI that makes attacks more targeted and devastating.From his former life recruiting English women as callers for organised crime networks to his current work advising the Home Office on Hawala money laundering networks funding small boat crossings, this episode reveals the insider perspective businesses need to hear. Alex explains why prison was a breeding ground for fraud conspiracies rather than a deterrent, how ChatGPT would have made him ten times more prolific and harder to catch, and why the fake Duke of Marlborough scam worked for seven months simply because luxury hotels refused to share data with competitors.Whether you're protecting your business or trying to spot the red flags in your own life, this conversation offers crucial insights into the criminal mind, the collaboration gaps that fraudsters exploit, and why the next frontier might be quantum computing breaking military grade encryption in minutes rather than months.Sumsub's website: sumsub.comSumsub's LinkedIn: linkedin.com/sumsubSumsub's Instagram: instagram.com/sumsubcomSumsub on X: x.com/SumsubcomSumsub's YouTube Channel: youtube.com/@sumsubcomThomas Taraniuk on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/tomtaraniukAlex Wood on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/beatfraud/

"Last year, only one in 10 fraud attempts were sophisticated enough to fool modern verification systems. This year, that number's nearly tripled. Amateur fraudsters are out and professionals who know exactly how to beat our defences are in."The fraud landscape is undergoing a complete transformation. Whilst overall fraud attempts have dropped by 50%, the attacks that do occur are nearly three times more sophisticated than last year. We're witnessing the rise of coordinated, AI-powered professional operations that combine multiple attack vectors simultaneously.Our guest is Artem Popov, Technical Product Manager for Fraud Prevention Solution at Sumsub, who joins host Thomas Taraniuk to discuss findings from Sumsub's annual Identity Fraud Report, analysing over 4 million fraud attempts globally.From AI-generated synthetic identities and deepfakes fooling liveness checks to telemetry tampering that attacks verification systems themselves, this episode exposes sophisticated techniques targeting industries worldwide. Artem explains how ID cards account for 72% of fraudulent documents, why Kenya now sees deepfakes in 10% of fraud attempts, and how romance scams combine emotional manipulation with synthetic identities. This conversation offers crucial insights into the multi-layered defences needed to stay ahead of professional fraud networks investing real money, time, and talent into beating your systems.Sumsub's website: sumsub.comSumsub's LinkedIn: linkedin.com/sumsubSumsub's Instagram: instagram.com/sumsubcomSumsub on X: x.com/SumsubcomSumsub's YouTube Channel: youtube.com/@sumsubcomThomas Taraniuk on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/tomtaraniukArtem Popov on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/system29a/