The Fraud Boxer Podcast

"I wanted to do something where I was like, 'Hey, how can I help people stop from being a victim in the first place?'"   In this episode I sit down with the Fraud Hero himself Mr. Marc Evans! He details his 13 years of experience in law enforcement, including seven years as a detective specializing in financial and cyber crimes. Evans explains that his motivation for creating Fraud Hero was born from his observation that law enforcement often only gets involved after a crime has occurred, leaving victims to deal with the aftermath. His mission is to provide proactive education and training to businesses, financial institutions, and the public, especially senior citizens, to help them stop scams before they start. He emphasizes the critical need for consistency in employee training to counter the evolving sophistication of transnational criminal networks, which have demonstrated a troubling ability to network and share information to perpetrate increasingly elaborate frauds, often involving significant amounts of money.   Watch the episode to hear real life examples of the scams he has encountered, including one that started with an Amazon fraud alert and escalated to a victim physically handing over nearly a million dollars to a fraudulent "federal agent" in a parking lot. He introduces his "scam formula" of hook, story, urgency, payment to help listeners recognize and avoid falling victim to these schemes. He strongly advises people to pause, think, and verify any unexpected contact, especially from alleged authorities, by independently contacting the official agency through a trusted source rather than using provided links or phone numbers. Evans stresses that effective prevention requires continuous education that goes beyond basic, one-time compliance training to address the current tactics used by criminals, such as exploiting cryptocurrency for immediate, untraceable payments.

"Why don't you guys police that? ... I feel like that is behavior that I kind of pay them to police and stop on their side too."   Coming at you from the Fraud Boxer in-person studio today we tackle the headache of card testing attacks and the new regulations from Visa that have everyone scrambling to keep their ratios below the 20% threshold. We break down why simply backing out duplicate transactions doesn't fix the problem and debate a hot topic in the industry: should the merchants be the ones policing this traffic, or should payment service providers step up and play bouncer before the data ever hits the network? It is a look at how bad actors use huge bot networks to guess card numbers and why your decline rates might be much higher than they appear on the surface.   But it is not all credit card schemes and fraud metrics; we also take a hard left turn into film criticism with a review of K-Pop Demon Hunters. We discuss why the movie induced tears for Cambria and introduce a fancy scientific term "frisson" to describe the goosebumps you get from a great musical finale. We wraps up with a look at the rising costs of chargeback fees, which are jumping up to seven dollars, and a very serious culinary debate regarding peppercorn sauce on steaks and whether or not seafood should actually taste like fish.   Grab a snack (preferably not a fishy one) and tune in for a mix of payment insights and questionable food opinions.

"92% of all POCs today in the US are failing because they're trying to use bad data and LLMs that are standardized or generalized."   At Money 2020 I sat down with Deuna (www.deuna.com) co-founder Roberto Kafati (REKS) and their US head of GTM Chase Foster to explore the critical importance of leveraging high-quality, actionable data and intelligent systems to drive business value, especially in complex enterprise environments. The core challenge today is that while most companies possess vast amounts of data, a staggering 92% of AI pilot projects fail because they rely on data that isn't "AI-ready" that is lacking the necessary context, cleanliness, and standardization to be effectively used by large language models (LLMs). The key is transforming raw data, such as the 638 direct and indirect data points per payment transaction, into a strategically usable asset that goes beyond cost-cutting to unlock significant revenue growth across the organization.   The company's platform, Athia, is designed to solve this by acting as an agentic intelligence platform that utilizes merchant-specific data from massive commerce operations (like major airlines, movie chains, and retailers) to provide proactive, highly focused insights. Instead of forcing teams to manually analyze hundreds of performance dashboards, Athia surfaces the most critical information, alerting teams to revenue leakages and recommending direct, real-time actions, such as optimizing payment routing or detecting opportunities in developing economies. This approach allows businesses to embrace the future of "agentic commerce" by maintaining control over the customer experience and ensuring data-driven decision-making is implemented automatically and continuously across all critical functions, fostering a new era of cross-departmental collaboration between areas like payments and marketing.

"Lost productivity due to disengagement is $8.8 trillion annually."   Today we sit down with ⁠Ronan Wall⁠, CEO of ⁠Dosen⁠ (⁠www.dosen.io⁠) for a fascinating and fun conversation about what really matters in business: people. We get into the weeds about the challenges companies face with employee engagement and why the old school, authoritative management style is officially dead. This episode is packed with personal stories and powerful insights that will change how you think about your team, your culture, and even your first day on the job. You’ll hear about the staggering cost of disengagement and why treating people right isn't just nice, it's essential for success. Discover Ronan’s unique servant leadership philosophy and how his new company, ⁠Dosen⁠, is revolutionizing the onboarding process to be more than just signing papers and getting a desk. Learn why those crucial early moments are the best opportunity to build trust and belonging that lasts a career. We also break down the latest trends in the workplace, including "quiet quitting," and the transformative role AI is playing in making people-centric learning scalable. Don't miss this one if you want to understand the numbers behind high performing teams and how to finally measure the true value of your company culture   Visit Dosen today: ⁠www.dosen.io⁠ Ronan Wall: ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/ronanwall/

"In your 20s, take risks. You have time to change your plan or celebrate."   Today on the show I sit down IN PERSON with former employee of my Evan Callaghan and catch up on life's wild pivots—all the way from the trenches of fraud analysis to the world of data engineering. Evan shares the hilarious and often chaotic story of moving to L.A. on an impulse, only to find himself in a completely new industry after his rock star dreams hit a snag. They discuss the value of taking big risks in your 20s, whether it's moving across the country for an elusive music career or enduring soul-crushing early morning gigs to learn a craft. From the discipline learned as a serious ski racer to the hustle of selling solar panels door-to-door, every adventure—and misstep—has contributed to his current path.   Evan's journey highlights a powerful transition from creative pursuit to a focused tech career. After realizing his passion for music production had a technical, analytical core, he switched gears, diving into a demanding coding bootcamp. He shares funny anecdotes about his failed music promotion event and the shocking revelation that nobody cares if your data is "PhD-level" if it's dirty! Listen in to hear how two friends—and former colleagues—found success by continually seeking growth, even if it meant getting "slapped by the universe" a few times along the way.  Find Evan here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/evancallaghan1994/

🤯 "If there is a fraud-related dispute, that one transaction just resulted in two hits."   This episode focuses on the enforcement of VAMP (Visa Acquirer Monitoring Program) that began on October 1st, 2025. The goal of VAMP is to reduce friction for cardholders and push fraud out of the payment system. Under VAMP, Visa combines all fraud and non-fraud disputes into a single ratio, and these disputes can be counted twice against a merchant's ratio if they appear in both the fraud (TC40) and chargeback (TC15) reports. The new merchant ratio limits are 2.2% for the rest of 2025 and will drop to 1.5% in April 2026. If a merchant exceeds this limit, they can face an at least $8 fee for every dispute from their acquirer, which could be up to $16 for fraud-related disputes that are double-counted.   Merchants can use several tools and strategies to lower their VAMP ratio. The first line of defense includes solutions like Order Insight and Consumer Clarity. These tools provide real-time transaction information to the card issuer when a cardholder calls, which can help deflect disputes before they become official chargebacks. Using these tools can lower a merchant's VAMP ratio by 15% to 25%. The second line of defense involves alerts (RDR, CDRN, Ethica Alerts), which notify merchants of a dispute before it becomes a chargeback, allowing them to issue a refund and prevent the chargeback count. However, this does not remove the fraud count from the ratio. It's crucial for merchants to understand their specific ratio and work with their acquirer, since acquirers have an even lower threshold of 0.7% that can impact all merchants in their portfolio.   Big thank you to ChargebackHelp for making this episode possible and lending us Bart Szypkowski to go over all of these details. If you have more questions about VAMP or need help please contact them at www.chargebackhelp.com!   Also visit this link to get your free eBook from them about VAMP: https://go.chargebackhelp.com/vamp V   --------------------------------------------   ➡️ Having trouble with VAMP already? Visit www.ChargebackHelp.com today to get start using all of the tools mentioned in the video today!   --------------------------------------------   "The moment I call my bank and tell them, 'hey, I didn't authorize that transaction,' the typical thing a card issuer will do is they will look at all the other transactions from that same merchant."   --------------------------------------------   Inquiries: sponsorships@fraudboxer.com

"People don't understand Agentic AI at all in any way shape or form. They think they do, but they have no clue"   2025 MAG (Merchant Advisory Group) Conference was one of my favorite of all time! In this special episode Doriel joins me in person at the show to discuss what we learned during our time in San Antonio! What a great week! Enjoy a quick video at the beginning that features some of the highlights from our time there!   V I D E O S    T O    W A T C H    N E X T :   What are AI Agents actually doing on your site? https://youtu.be/qAaIS_mMQHA What is Agentic AI? https://youtu.be/3w14T-pHalI   What the Fraud?! (Doriel's show) on Agentic AI:   Buying with an AI Agent: https://youtu.be/9exRXopNTnQ?si=Uu4_INpc7iNJ9ZK4   Agentic AI Paradox: https://youtu.be/RdabA8rHasE?si=Hk7P4E0oAQOBB3_I   --------------------------------------------   Inquiries: sponsorships@fraudboxer.com

"There's no way that these are not gonna be upcharged. There is zero chance these are not gonna be marked up just like every other thing that PSPs do."   In this episode, Ronan Ben-Ami from the chargeback mitigation company Justt, breaks down the latest changes to chargeback fees from Visa. The card network has introduced new fees for acquirers and shorter response deadlines, which will likely increase costs for businesses. Acquirers are now charged higher fees for longer dispute resolutions, and they're passing those costs directly to merchants. This means merchants will have less time to fight disputes and will incur more fees for delays, making it more critical than ever to have a quick and effective chargeback strategy. With these changes, the focus for merchants must shift from simply winning disputes to maximizing the Return on Investment (ROI) for each case. The new landscape requires businesses to have a deep understanding of their specific fees and to obtain their TC40 and TC15 data to properly monitor their chargeback ratios. To adapt, merchants should consider using smart decisioning tools that can automatically accept disputes that aren't worth fighting and build strong, compelling cases for those that are, helping to protect their bottom line in this new era of increased fees and shortened timelines.   Links from the video: Tables for the new fees: https://justt.ai/blog/visa-chargeback-fee-changes-april-2025/#:~:text=Below%20are%20the%20main%20changes,a%20%241.00%20fee%20per%20case. VAMP Guide: https://justt.ai/guides-and-ebooks/guide-get-ready-for-vamp/ Justt Dispute Optimization: https://justt.ai/blog/justt-announces-dispute-optimization-to-help-merchants-maximize-chargeback-recovery/   V I D E O S T O W A T C H N E X T :   Friendly Fraud in Crypto with Justt? https://youtu.be/GMm1lvm_FOw   Justt Chargeback Report Results? https://youtu.be/e40pUzQr8x4   -------------------------------------------- "They simplified the fees for the merchant as opposed to what's happening behind the scenes and how they're being charged by the card schemes. But they're keeping themselves ROI positive, and they're making money off of the scenario." -------------------------------------------- Inquiries: sponsorships@fraudboxer.com

Dive into the world of real-time payments with insights on Stablecoins and FedNow. Discover how Stablecoins, pegged to the US dollar, offer predictable value while operating on blockchain. Explore the unique features of FedNow, which caters to domestic transactions like payroll and instant refunds. Learn about the regulatory landscape and merchant adoption strategies to optimize these payment methods. The conversation highlights key differences in speed, settlement, and scope, making for an engaging discussion on the future of finance.

Nate Kharrl, Co-founder and CEO of Spec, and Shawn Colpitts, a fraud and data specialist at Spec, dive deep into the world of AI agents and bots. They clarify the differences between helpful agents and harmful bots, highlighting real-world examples like an AI agent's clever shopping habits. Discover why not all bots are bad for business and how blocking them indiscriminately could cost you sales. The duo also shares tips on tracking agent behavior and suggests strategies for distinguishing between legitimate traffic and malicious activity.