An afternoon session on Day 1 of the NRF PROTECT event in Cleveland examined what fraud teams can do to address the heightened level of fraud cutting across many different verticals. While there are a range of reasons fraud has not taken its usual post-holiday respite, fraud team leaders that may be operating with inadequate resources must maintain a high level of communication both within their organization and with other merchants in their vertical, according to Holly Sandberg, senior director of global fraud prevention at Ticketmaster.
Sandberg notes that businesses reacted to the Covid pandemic in a variety of ways. Ticketmaster committed to a becoming a truly global team, leveraging the remote work capabilities that came to the fore when many office workers were forced to stay home in 2020. But, operating at a high level of activity from a remote location can result in a higher-than-normal rate of burnout among fraud team members.
“As a company that has committed to remote work, we are making an effort to get together in person periodically,” Sandberg explained. “It’s a lot to coordinate, it’s expensive, but gave us absolutely one thousand percent return on investment. We had several people on the team who didn’t necessarily have enough context about what the team was doing. Meeting in person can give you a chance to communicate that context. Knowing that can make a huge difference. It can make you more invested in what you’re doing and help you feel that you’re part of something important.”
Sandberg also noted the importance of trying to find and network with fraud professionals working in the same vertical. While competitors are not often allowed to share information with each other, being able to network in this way, if you can, makes a huge difference in addressing blind spots and acquiring knowledge of new tactics to fight a problem you might not be familiar with.
