November 16 to 22 is International Fraud Awareness Week 2025, run by the US-based Association of Certified Fraud Examiners’ (ACFE).
More about the week at https://www.fraudweek.com/. ACFE president John Gill, J.D., CFE, described fraud as an issue that, unfortunately, affects people from all walks of life and takes many forms. He said: “Whether it’s a trusted employee stealing from a small business, or organized rings of fraudsters targeting seniors in our community, most people know someone who’s been victimized by fraud. That’s why it’s so important for organizations to join in this fight together to raise awareness during this week and beyond. It is a serious problem that requires a proactive approach toward preventing it and educating people is the first step.”
Events
Numerous ACFE chapters and others are running in-person and online events over the week. Prospects Hedd is a degree verification service that will check if a UK university or college is a recognised degree-awarding body and not a fake, such as (to name some fraudulently set up) Ridgeshire University and the University of Marylebone. According to Prospects Hedd, fake universities are part of a “global problem” of degree fraud. Hence the service has run an online talk on safeguarding authenticity and protecting universities and their graduates – given that AI-driven fraud and fake credentials are on the rise, creating new challenges – on day one of the week, November 17, including a recent Hedd survey.
Comments
Jeff Otto, Chief Marketing Officer at ecommerce risk management platform Riskified, said: “Agents are fundamentally changing the way people shop, enabling greater convenience but also introducing new points of vulnerability. Fraud teams are uniquely positioned to protect both merchants and consumers; they build the guardrails that enable the safe and confident adoption of ecommerce innovation. During the holiday season and beyond, our goal is to ensure all ecommerce channels are sustainable revenue drivers, not vectors for fraud and abuse.” Visit Riskified.com/FraudWeek.
Michael Down, Global Head of Financial Services at the platform Neo4j, said: “Fraud has always been about connections between people, accounts, and moments of trust. What has changed is the scale, speed, and intelligence behind these fraudulent attacks. Today’s fraudsters work in tight, fast-moving networks, spinning webs of mule accounts, synthetic IDs, and synchronised transaction flows. Legacy systems, built to analyse isolated transactions, often miss the broader context and allow schemes to go undetected.
“From ghost brokering in insurance to coordinated mule networks, deception no longer happens in isolation; it thrives in the gaps between disconnected systems. As data becomes more complex and interconnected, traditional defences are fast reaching their limits. Financial institutions must reinvent how they fight back, placing graph technology at the heart of this shift. By transforming raw data into context, graph technology empowers teams to recognize fraud for what it truly is – a networked problem.”
And Gunnar Peterson, CSO at the fraud and dispute management platform Forter says: “As fraud becomes increasingly automated and borderless, the integrity of digital commerce depends on how well we understand and secure identity in motion. Fraudsters now operate with the same tools that power innovation – AI, automation, and global connectivity – and exploit every gap between security layers. Resilience begins by moving beyond transaction-level checks to a continuous view of identity, tracking how legitimate and fraudulent behaviour evolve across the entire customer lifecycle. Static fraud controls can’t keep pace with dynamic, AI-driven threats. What’s needed is identity intelligence that adapts in real time and connects behavioural, device, and network signals to discern intent, not just activity. By uniting global intelligence with adaptive detection, organisations can outpace emerging attack methods while preserving trust for legitimate customers. International Fraud Awareness Week is a reminder that preventing fraud isn’t just about blocking bad actors; it’s about enabling secure, seamless interactions that foster digital trust. Protecting identity at scale strengthens the entire ecosystem of online commerce, helping businesses grow with confidence and customers engage without fear.”
