For years, the banking industry focused on one goal: reduce friction. Every extra interaction with a customer was viewed as something to avoid.

But scams have changed the rules.

When criminals manipulate customers into authorizing payments themselves, transaction monitoring alone can't tell the whole story. The missing piece is context—and the only person who has it is the customer.

In this episode, Ayelet sits down with Kate Pundik, Fraud Risk Management Program Manager at Valley Bank, and Juliana Bogotinoska, FVP and BSA Officer at Bankwell, to discuss why proactive customer engagement is becoming one of the most powerful tools in modern fraud prevention.

Together, they explore how banks are rethinking trust, why customer outreach is no longer viewed as unnecessary friction, and how partnering with customers can improve fraud detection, strengthen relationships, and prevent losses before money moves.

• Why scams require a completely different fraud prevention strategy than traditional account takeover.
• Why the customer often has the one piece of information banks cannot see: intent.
• How customer outreach helps prevent account takeover, check fraud, scams, and money mule activity.
• Why reaching out to customers is becoming a better customer service experience—not simply another security control.
• How financial institutions are building trusted communication channels with customers.
• Why fraud, AML, risk, technology, marketing, and customer-facing teams must work together to protect customers.
• How AI is changing both scam tactics and the way banks must respond.
• Why the future of fraud prevention is built on partnership, trust, and communication.

The future of fraud prevention isn't simply about detecting suspicious transactions. It's about building trusted relationships with customers, giving them the confidence to make safer decisions, and creating a partnership where banks and customers work together to stop fraud before money moves.

Ayelet Biger-Levin is the Founder and CEO of RangersAI and the host of Scam Rangers, a podcast exploring the human side of scams and the people working to protect consumers from financial and emotional harm.

Through her work at RangersAI and her leadership within the Global Anti-Scam Alliance and the Stop Scams Alliance, Ayelet partners with financial institutions, policymakers, and industry leaders to advance a more human-centered approach to scam prevention.

Follow Ayelet on LinkedIn to continue the conversation and learn more about the work being done to build scam resilience.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/ayelet-biger-levin/