Fraudsters are very effective at building trust to carry out their plans, as we found out recently at the Rotunda PKO Bank Polski. Fintech Poland, Salv and We Fight Fraud gathered alongside 35 delegates from banks, fintechs and crypto firms to explore how fraudsters use social engineering to deceive victims—and how we can work together and share information to prevent it.

Through engaging reenactments from the We Fight Fraud team, attendees got to see exactly how fraudsters operate, sparking insightful discussions on how Polish financial institutions can get ahead of these threats.

The takeaway? Better fraud prevention requires collaboration and innovation: two tools that come straight from the criminal playbook.

Inside the fraudster’s playbook

To fight fraud more effectively, you have to step into the victim’s shoes and see the tactics firsthand. The We Fight Fraud team reenacted a real-life fraud scheme, made up of three separate scenarios, which we’ve outlined below. Each demonstrates how criminals manipulate emotions to steal money, evade detection, and launder the proceeds—exploiting the financial system throughout.

• The marketplace scam

A fraudster lists an in-demand item, like a car or a gaming console, at a competitive price. The victim, eager to secure the deal, is guided through a convincing yet fake purchasing process. Once payment is made, the scammer disappears, leaving the victim out of pocket and with no recourse.

• Bank imitation/ authorised push payment scam (APP Fraud)

The victim receives a phone call, this time from their bank’s ‘fraud department’, after noticing a suspicious transaction. This is a great relief for the victim, but the trouble is that the caller is actually part of the same criminal group. This type of scam is known as APP fraud, payment fraud or bank impersonation fraud. After obtaining all the victim’s personal details during the marketplace scam, fraudsters can sound very legitimate and pass off as their bank. After a fake security check, the criminal asks the victim to approve a series of test transactions. But unfortunately, each transaction the victim approves sends money to the criminal’s account.

• The romance scam

With a significant amount of money stolen from the victim, now the criminal needs to launder them to hide their origin. To do this, fraudsters patiently build online relationships on dating apps, earning trust for when they need a favour.

Once trust is established, the criminal fabricates a financial emergency, convincing the victim to transfer stolen funds on their behalf—effectively turning them into an unwitting money mule.

Key takeaways from the event

During the event, interactive discussions between fincrime practitioners highlighted the need for better fraud prevention measures, including:

Location checking: Is the customer calling from one location but logging in from another? A mismatch could be a red flag.

Training for frontline staff: social engineering manipulates everyday people. So, customer support staff need better training to help detect deception earlier.

Better collaboration: Fraud and AML departments often work in silos, but fraudsters don’t. Better collaboration internally can help improve detection rates and response times. Taking this a step further, collaboration in the form of information sharing between organisations can protect customers, stop fraud and recover stolen money before it gets laundered.

One thing that stood out at this event: stopping fraud is as much about empowering people as it is about using the right technology. By working together more effectively, both internally and across the industry, we can disrupt criminal networks and protect customers before it’s too late.

Salv has been championing collaboration in financial crime for over five years now using Salv Bridge—the first information sharing platform built specifically for fraud.

Over 70 banks, fintechs, and crypto firms use Salv Bridge daily to combat fraud more effectively. Learn more about it here.

We Fight Fraud is a financial crime consultancy using research-informed, evidence-based, and experience-driven methods to identify industry vulnerabilities so that criminals can’t. Learn more about them here.