Fraud detection has become more automated, but is there a case for more human intuition in the process? In this episode, Dom Beveridge speaks with Damon McCall, founder of ApproveShield, about how human judgment, conversation and case-level review can improve outcomes for both operators and onsite teams.

The conversation covers:

• The human role in screening: Bringing together identity, income and rental history, applying context and judgment to find edge cases that automated checks might miss.

• Centralized casework instead of onsite burden: How dedicated teams handling applications separates sales from screening and removes the onsite conflict of declining applicants.

• Detection of behavioural red flags: Can people spot patterns that algorithms might miss? Implausible income movement, repeated false identity-theft claims, inconsistent narratives—that often evade automated checks.

• Why friction is your friend: Keeping some manual steps by design helps, because a purely low-friction process creates blind spots and raises exposure to fraud

Sponsors for this episode:

Western Reporting, resident screening and income verification by Inhabit

EliseAI, AI-driven automation that helps streamline communications and improve operational efficiency.

To get access to the latest 20for20 articles, papers and news about forthcoming events, subscribe to our blog at 20for20.com.

Connect with Dom Beveridge (Principal, 20for20) via LinkedIn, or email to dom@20for20.com.

Our theme, “Beautiful Geometry” by Phish Funk is licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 International License.

Fraud in multifamily has evolved from individual and opportunistic to a more coordinated and sophisticated enterprise. In this episode, Dom Beveridge speaks with Jess Tierney, chief integration officer at Verifast, James Stilwell, head of fraud forensics at Snappt and Maitri Johnson, senior vice president at TransUnion, about the mechanics of organized fraud, how it spreads, and what operators need to understand about the threat.

The conversation covers:

• Fraud rings, testers, and influencers: How organized groups test properties share techniques, and sell full “rental packages.” Some even create shell management companies to probe fraud systems. Social channels accelerate the spread.

• Inception fraud and synthetic identities: How fraudsters build real credit profiles from fabricated identities, using child, deceased, inmate and CPN-based SSNs.

• Insider risk and incentives: Overrides driven by occupancy pressure or commissions remain a material vulnerability. Centralized workflows reduce the surface area for insider manipulation.

• Signals in the data: Including cross-market patterns, late-night applications, single-document submissions, mismatched device data, repeated use of lightweight payroll tools, or multiple applicants linked to the same fraud ring.

Sponsors for this episode:

Western Reporting, resident screening and income verification by Inhabit

EliseAI, AI-driven automation that helps streamline communications and improve operational efficiency.

To get access to the latest 20for20 articles, papers and news about forthcoming events, subscribe to our blog at 20for20.com.

Connect with Dom Beveridge (Principal, 20for20) via LinkedIn, or email to dom@20for20.com.

Our theme, “Beautiful Geometry” by Phish Funk is licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 International License.

In this episode of Tech Talk with 20for20, Dom Beveridge is joined by Sam Stein (Snappt), Vitaliy Merkulov (Renter, Inc.), and Amanda Cox (President and COO of Bellaire Multifamily Management) to explore why verification of rent (VOR) is returning as a core part of screening—and what modern technology now makes possible.

The conversation covers:

• What is VOR and how does it help? How VOR uses prior-landlord records to reveal late payments, balances, damage, notices, pets, early terminations, and evictions that never reach credit files.

• Why VOR nearly disappeared—and why it’s back: The old landlord-to-landlord phone call broke down as site teams became mobile and harder to reach.AI-driven outreach (calls, texts, emails) and call-center support have restored completion rates to 75–80%.

• The operator’s view: mitigating risk and easing workload: How Bellaire turned around a distressed portfolio, using VOR to uncovere 25 undisclosed evictions, 61 outstanding balances, and hundreds of late pays—none of which were in the standard screening.

• What VoR has to do with fraud detection: 5–10% of VOR results conflict with what core screening reports and 5–7% of reference contacts are provably fake

• The critical difference between ability to pay and willingness to pay, and why it matters for screening

Sponsors for this episode:

Western Reporting, resident screening and income verification by Inhabit

EliseAI, AI-driven automation that helps streamline communications and improve operational efficiency.

To get access to the latest 20for20 articles, papers and news about forthcoming events, subscribe to our blog at 20for20.com.

Connect with Dom Beveridge (Principal, 20for20) via LinkedIn, or email to dom@20for20.com.

Our theme, “Beautiful Geometry” by Phish Funk is licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 International License.