Episode 50

Billions of PPP Fraud with Gil Rosenthal

Published on: 4th January, 2022

This episode is brought to you by SEON.

Gil Rosenthal has had a front row seat to financial fraud online for the past 10 years of his career. His fraud career began at PayPal with an elite team of fraud-fighters in Tel Aviv, charged with preventing the high volume of fraud they experienced around 2010. He then moved to BlueVine, an online lender for businesses, where he worked his way up to VP of Risk Management. 

While at BlueVine, Gil was in charge of the risk management, as well as the operations processes for the roll-out of PPP (Paycheck Protection Program in the US), to help provide Billions of dollars of funds to small & medium businesses that needed the funds to continue paying their employees. It's been well documented that the entire PPP program resulted in >$76 Billion in fraud. It can be assumed that Gil & his team saw a lot of this, and stopped as much as they could. For the first time publicly, Gil shares what he can about this experience, the unique challenges he & his team faced in stopping fraudulent applications but also experienced the rewards of funding millions of businesses with needed funds to keep their businesses afloat. 

Now working as an adviser to high-growth Fintech companies, Gil has learned even more as he works with multiple clients to identify a myriad of fraud attempts in many forms. He shares with the Fraudology audience some of the keys to his success, and his methodology in working with some of the biggest targets of online fraud in the present day. But even more important, the perspective that fraud prevention is more about enabling a better customer experience when done right. 

Next week, Gil will join us for Part 2 of our conversation where we will "geek out" about the new approach fraudsters are taking to negatively impact the entire payments eco-system in different ways, and that often gets overlooked or coded as credit issues, instead of fraud. Merchants, fintech companies, banks, and card brands will want to listen to Part 2 as this "trend" is sure to exponentially grow in 2022. 

Connect with Gil on LinkedIn.

Be sure you're subscribed to the Fraudology podcast on your favorite podcast app so you'll be alerted as soon as the next episode is released. 

This podcast is sponsored by SEON. The modern fraud prevention solution used by the most ambitious FinTech names such as Revolut, Afterpay, and Wise. SEON is democratizing fraud fighting at scale. By offering a free trial, public-facing API references, no install or setup fees, and fully transparent pricing where you only pay for what you need, this puts cutting-edge risk tech into the hands of every online business. Visit www.seon.io/demo for a free demo.

Mentioned in this episode:

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About the Podcast

Fraudology Podcast with Karisse Hendrick
Join Fraud Fighter Karisse Hendrick twice a week for deep dive interviews and weekly fraud news.
If you work in online fraud prevention, chances are you've caught the "bug". The bug that makes you passionate about identifying & preventing cybercriminals from getting away with stealing from your company, or your client's companies. Most people who have made cyber-fraud their career have the perfect balance of analytical and social skills, a strong sense of justice and the curiosity that will drive you to go down every path of information until you "crack the case".

Just like sociology is the study of social behavior, and psychology is the study of human behavior, Fraudology is the science and study of fraud.

On the Fraudology podcast, long-time online fraud expert, Karisse Hendrick will dive into all areas of Fraudology from the perspective of a fraud-fighter. With guests ranging from former cybercriminals to fraud-fighters at Fortune 500 companies to law enforcement and others, you will no doubt be entertained, while learning a lot about fraud & other forms of abuse prevention!

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Karisse Hendrick