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/

Most of us believe that if someone is being scammed, all they need is proof.

Show them the evidence. Point out the red flags. Explain the facts.

But what if that's not enough?

In this episode of Scam Rangers, I sit down with Ayleen Charlotte, survivor of the Tinder Swindler and founder of SAFE (Scam Awareness & Fraud Education), to explore what really happens when someone isunder the influence of a scammer and why breaking that manipulation requires much more than facts.

Ayleen shares her personal journey from victim to advocate, including the emotional aftermath of discovering that the relationship she believed in never existed. We discuss how scams reshape the way people think, why victims often defend the scammer, and what banks, investigators, frontline teams, and even family members need to understand if they truly want to help.

This conversation goes beyond one remarkable story. It challenges many of the assumptions we've made about scam prevention and highlights why understanding human psychology is just as important as understanding fraud.

• Why scam victims can't always be convinced with facts alone.
• How manipulation changes the way people think, process information, and make decisions.
• The different stages of the "scam spell" and why interventions must adapt to each stage.
• Why fraudsters intentionally position banks and loved ones as the enemy.
• What organizations can do to become more victim-centered and trauma-informed.
• How Ayleen transformed her lived experience into SAFE, a training platform helping financial institutions, law enforcement, and organizations better support scam victims.

Ayleen Charlotte is an international speaker, fraud awareness advocate, and founder of SAFE (Scam Awareness & Fraud Education). Following her experience as one of the victims featured in The Tinder Swindler, she dedicated her career to helping organizations better understand the psychology of manipulation and improve how they support scam victims through victim-centered, trauma-informed education.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/ayleen-charlotte-09a338256/

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/

What does the future of fraud prevention look like from the perspective of someone who has spent two decades helping scam victims?

In this episode of The Scam Rangers Podcast, Ayelet Biger-Levin sits down with Amanda Shute, Senior Risk Manager, External Fraud Oversight, whose career began on the front lines as a bank teller helping customers after devastating scams. That experience shaped her belief that fraud prevention isn't just about stopping transactions. It's about helping people navigate trust.

Together they explore how AI is changing the scam landscape, why traditional awareness campaigns often fail in emotionally charged moments, and what financial institutions can do to build customer resilience before a payment is ever made.

From relationship-building and victim advocacy to synthetic trust and real-time intervention, this conversation offers a fresh perspective on the human side of fraud prevention, and why trust may become the industry's most important security control.

In this episode you'll learn:

• How Amanda's career on the teller line shaped her approach to fraud prevention
• Why scam victims lose more than money. They lose trust
• The role financial institutions can play in rebuilding customer confidence
• What "synthetic trust" means in the age of AI-generated scams
• The new warning signs of AI-driven social media fraud
• Why awareness alone isn't enough once emotions take over
• How banks can evolve from fraud recovery to customer resilience
• Why collaboration across institutions is becoming essential
• What the new FinCEN 314(b) clarification means for information sharing
• Why every fraud professional should continuously learn from peers across the industry

Why this episode matters

Scams are no longer simply attacks on accounts—they're attacks on trust. As AI enables criminals to create increasingly convincing stories and identities, financial institutions face a new challenge: helping customers make better trust decisions before manipulation succeeds.

Amanda offers a practical roadmap for how fraud leaders can rethink prevention—not just through stronger controls, but by building trusted relationships, creating meaningful interventions, and putting the customer experience at the center of their strategy. You can learn more about her on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amandashute/

About the Host - 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, Ayelet partners with financial institutions, policymakers, and advocates to elevate scam prevention beyond controls and technology toward trust-based, customer-centric protection.

Be sure to follow her on LinkedIn and reach out to learn about her additional activities in this space: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ayelet-biger-levin/

RangersAI: https://www.rangersai.com/