Controlling Obvious and Hidden Fraud Threats: The Cristiano Ronaldo Syndrome

On a client engagement in the US, I’ve had the pleasure of experiencing the press hysteria surrounding the World Cup from a different perspective. The game against Portugal dominated the news — in particular, the threat of FIFA world player of the year, Cristiano Ronaldo.

The emphasis has been on how the US team can control and maintain this particular and prominent threat. That’s understandable, given that Ronaldo's free-kick speed is around 130 kilometers an hour, which equates to 31.1 meters per second (more than four times the speed of Apollo 11’s launch).

But what about the rest of the team? It appears very little thought or credit was being given to Cristiano’s team mates, who have helped him take Portugal to the fourth-highest ranked team in the world. Two crucial goals were scored during the match not by Cristiano, but by Nani and Silvestre Varela. Perhaps so much attention was being placed on mitigating one risk that it left holes and gaps for others to exploit.

Here at FICO we often witness similar approaches to fraud prevention. While significant time, effort, and investment is committed to mitigate obvious and visible threats, unseen and unconsidered threats can cause a significant problem. By the time you realise you’re in trouble, it’s often too late to have a significant impact on related fraud losses. You could be 1:0 down before you know it.

In every fraud prevention strategy, regardless of the industry, it’s imperative that you not only have the appropriate tools to not only combat the threats of today, but also the appropriate planning and flexibility to counter the modus operandi of tomorrow.

Our Fair Isaac Advisors consultancy team are available to help you identify weaknesses in your fraud prevention defence, and ensure you have the appropriate contingency planning — just in case Nani decides to attack you up the wing!