The Cost of Convenience Series: Payment Fraud: Old Methods, New Rails

As payment systems become faster and more seamless, the risks embedded within them become easier to overlook. “The Cost of Convenience Series: Payment Fraud: Old Methods, New Rails” explores how modern financial infrastructure has transformed the way money moves—and how fraud has evolved alongside it.

In this course, Ashley Karr breaks down how digital wallets, peer-to-peer apps, ACH transfers, cards, wire systems, and instant payment rails are exploited by fraudsters who rely not on technical complexity, but on human behavior. Speed, urgency, trust, and familiarity are increasingly used as tools of manipulation, turning everyday transactions into opportunities for financial loss.

Participants will gain a clear understanding of how different payment systems operate, why certain transactions are harder to reverse than others, and how fraud strategies exploit both traditional banking rails and emerging fintech platforms. The session focuses on practical awareness—helping attendees recognize risk patterns and strengthen payment decision-making in real-world settings.

Key Topics Discussed:

• Evolution of payment systems and fraud adaptation
• Payment app fraud and impersonation scams
• Authorized push payment fraud and social engineering tactics
• Transaction manipulation and urgency-based deception
• Risks associated with account linking and stored payment methods
• Digital wallets and peer-to-peer platform vulnerabilities
• Differences between authorized and unauthorized transactions
• Why faster payment rails increase irreversibility of fraud
• Behavioral triggers exploited in financial decision-making