From Credit Card Bust-Outs to Pig Butchering: A 26-Year Fraud Fighter Exposes the Gaps | Steve Lenderman

Episode 42: What do synthetic identities, bust-out credit card fraud, and pig butchering scams have in common? More than you'd think. In this episode of Stolen, Erin sits down with Steve Lenderman — a 26-year fraud prevention veteran who's worked across credit cards, PayPal, FinTech, and payroll — for a masterclass on how financial fraud really works, and why so many institutions are still failing victims.

Steve breaks down synthetic identity fraud (what it is, how it started, and why "digital ghosts" are now being used to launder scam proceeds), explains the mechanics of bust-out fraud in plain English, and connects the dots between old-school financial crime and today's cryptocurrency scams. He also gets into what banks could be doing right now — from device fingerprinting to behavioral analytics — to detect and protect customers before a pig butchering scam spirals out of control.

Plus: the fraud triangle, why KYC is not a fraud control, and why having great data scientists on your team means nothing if they don't understand what a scam actually looks like.

Stolen is hosted by Erin West, former Santa Clara County prosecutor and founder of Operation Shamrock.

Learn more about Operation Shamrock: operationshamrock.org

Meet Our Sponsors

BioCatch prevents financial crime by recognizing patterns in human behavior, continuously collecting 3,000 anonymized data points – keystroke and mouse activity, touch screen behavior, physical device attributes, and more – as people interact with their digital banking platforms. With these inputs, BioCatch's models reveal patterns that distinguish the criminal from the legitimate.

Scamnetic is a leader in AI-powered scam detection and prevention, protecting individuals, businesses, and financial institutions from digital scams. With solutions like KnowScam and IDeveryone, Scamnetic delivers real-time scam insights, identity verification, and intervention. Restoring trust, reducing losses, and empowering organizations to safeguard customers in an increasingly complex digital world.