In a world filled with endless fraud alerts and chargebacks that make no sense, finding your community becomes more than just networking - it becomes survival. This episode dives deep into the rising threat of first party abuse, formerly known as friendly fraud, which now accounts for 20% of all fraud incidents and is the top concern for 45% of merchants.

Vito Petruzzelli and Gena Rivera from Signifyd host an intimate conversation about building meaningful connections in the fraud prevention space while tackling the hardest challenges facing teams today. The discussion reveals why first party abuse cases are spiking across e-commerce platforms and how fraud teams can turn these seemingly impossible disputes into valuable business intelligence.

Key topics covered:

[00:00] Intro

[02:15] Building community in chaotic times

[06:37] Individual challenges in threat intelligence

[10:05] Free fraud prevention event announcement

[15:47] Harry Potter email mishap confession

[17:48] First party abuse statistics revealed

[20:38] Friendly fraud as business insight

[25:32] 23 percent chargeback win rate

[28:30] Revenue optimization over cost center

[31:19] Merchant descriptor changes impact

[32:26] Photo proof delivery investigations

[36:04] Narrative building prevents future fraud

[37:12] Final words and community gratitude

Shelley Soucy shares how her team achieved a remarkable 18% year-over-year reduction in preventable disputes by focusing on cross-departmental communication and process improvements. The conversation explores practical strategies for investigating suspicious chargebacks, from using delivery photos and Google Street View to building compelling dispute narratives.

Jamie Ceccato discusses the challenges of merchant descriptor confusion and how proper communication between sales teams and customers can prevent unnecessary disputes.

Ryan McDonald announces a free industry event focused on threat intelligence and fraud prevention techniques.

The episode emphasizes the importance of viewing first party abuse as a diagnostic tool rather than just a loss recovery opportunity. These incidents often reveal gaps in customer service, shipping carrier performance, product quality issues, or website messaging problems that can be addressed through cross-functional collaboration.

Learn how to transform friendly fraud investigations into business intelligence that drives operational improvements across customer support, logistics, product teams, and marketing communications.