From Persuasion to Payment: The Journey of a Scam
Every scam has two victims: The person tricked into paying, and the financial ecosystem exploited to move the money. Yet most fraud conversations only look at one side.
This keynote pairs renowned fraud expert Becky Holmes with Niamh Lewis to walk through a real scam from both ends at once. Becky shows how scammers use social engineering, grooming, and coercive control to get a victim to authorize a payment and override their own warning signs. Niamh then shows how that payment may appear within the acquiring ecosystem, revealing how scam proceeds can be routed through merchants that appear legitimate on the surface.
They move back and forth throughout, grounded in real case studies, so the audience sees what the victim believed, what the scammer was doing, what the acquirer could see, and where someone could have stepped in.
The premise: A scam is a human relationship and a commercial operation running in parallel. Catch only the manipulation or only the money—and the scam survives.
What you’ll learn:
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Why a fully authorized payment can still be fraud, and why traditional fraud controls may struggle to detect it.
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How the same coached story that convinces a victim can also withstand careful fraud review.
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How one bad transaction can be the visible tip of a much larger network.
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How to bridge the gap between what the victim experiences and what the payments ecosystem can see—because real prevention depends on understanding both.
Drop anchor with us
The session ends, the room empties, and you’re left with a question about your own portfolio. You’ll find us steps away, with our booth and private room right between the two main session rooms.
Our risk experts and leadership team see how bad actors move across acquirers, platforms, and borders, so you get a view of where risk is heading that’s hard to find anywhere else. Pull up a chair to talk strategy, compare notes, or explore working together. Book time ahead and we’ll have the right people ready for you.
Deep end, after dark
More to come.
Merchant Risk Solutions
Risk solutions for the full merchant lifecycle
Grow your payments business with complete merchant risk intelligence across onboarding, monitoring, and emerging risk
Onboarding
Onboard merchants faster without sacrificing risk controls
Monitoring
Monitor merchants continuously as risk evolves
Risk Intelligence
Expose complex and emerging merchant threats