Why connected intelligence is the future of fraud prevention

The National Economic Crime Centre (NECC) 2025-26 annual report states that fraud accounts for approximately 45% of all estimated crime in England and Wales, and that 1 in 14 adults are thought to have been victims of fraud. Cifas figures confirm that more than 220,000 fraud-risk cases were recorded to the National Fraud Database in the first half of 2026.

The numbers are staggering, and are driven, at least in part, by how much of our day-to-day activity now happens online. Fraudsters can access personal information at a speed and a scale that we have never experienced before.

And that access to data is key – not only to fraudsters, but also to those of us working tirelessly to identify and disrupt that activity.

Fraud is often seen as a series of individual events. An account takeover. A fraudulent application. A suspicious payment. A SIM swap. A money mule.

But what if that’s the wrong way to look at it? Whilst we see individual incidents, fraudsters see something very different.

They see a journey.

A piece of stolen personal information can become a new identity. That identity can be used to obtain a mobile phone or a financial product. Access to the phone can facilitate account takeover. Funds can then be moved through one or more mule accounts before paying out.

Yet each organisation may only see one transaction. The only one who knows the full picture is the criminal.

Let’s take a hypothetical scenario with a hypothetical customer: Matthew.

• 08.12 criminal obtains Matthew’s information from a compromised database.
• 10.17 a SIM swap gives the criminal control of Matthew’s mobile.
• 10.41 they reset Matthew’s bank account.
• 11.03 a new credit application is made using Matthew’s identity.
• 11.26 high-value goods are bought using the new credit.
• 12.15 £9,000 is transferred to a mule account.
• 13.05 £8,000 is transferred to another account.
• 13.25 funds are withdrawn.

That took just over five hours. Several organisations, just one criminal operation. And at no point did any organisation see the full picture.

So – who knew what and when?

The bank knows that the customer suddenly changed their contact details.

The telco knows that the SIM was recently transferred.

The lender knows that a credit application was made.

The retailer knows that a new account is making a high-value purchase.

Another bank knows that the receiving account has started receiving unrelated payments.

Each organisation could’ve had a perfectly reasonable explanation for what they were seeing, but only when put together does a different story emerge and the value of cross-sector intelligence becomes clear.

So instead of asking ‘is this transaction fraudulent?’ we should ask ‘what does this transaction tell us about activity happening elsewhere?’ Or more importantly, ‘could this information help somebody else prevent the next stage of a fraud?’

A suspicious transaction is useful, but a suspicious transaction linked to a suspicious device, a compromised identity, a newly opened account and a network of seemingly unrelated accounts is in a different league.

So how can we generate better intelligence using the data that already exists? 

Bringing fraud intelligence into the monitoring process

One practical example of this approach is the collaboration between ThirdEye and Cifas.

ThirdEye users that are also Cifas members can carry out Cifas searches directly from within the ThirdEye application. This means relevant Cifas intelligence can be accessed as part of the financial crime monitoring and investigation process, rather than requiring investigators to step outside their existing workflow.

For example, a transaction monitoring alert may identify unusual activity on an account. On its own, that activity may not provide enough information to understand what is happening. Relevant external fraud intelligence can provide another piece of the puzzle and help investigators consider whether the activity is connected to known fraud risk.

It also reinforces an important principle: fraud data shouldn’t only be useful after a fraud has happened. Used appropriately, it can contribute to ongoing customer monitoring and help firms identify changes in risk, connections between seemingly unrelated activity and potential indicators of wider criminal networks.

Individual organisations will always have their own boundaries, controls and responsibilities. But that doesn’t mean the intelligence they hold has to remain isolated. If a previously unknown mule network is identified, its characteristics may help to disrupt activity elsewhere. If one identity, device or behaviour is appearing across otherwise unrelated incidents, connecting the dots could uncover a much larger fraud operation.

And identifying it means we can disrupt it. If we can spot the activity before the final account cashes out, then not only is the loss prevented, but many potential victims have been protected. And this really matters: Fraud having lasting impact on mental health of victims, Which? warns.

Fraudsters are becoming increasingly adept at exploiting the connections between organisations and sectors. The response cannot simply be for every organisation to build a taller wall around itself.

Because the most valuable fraud signal may not be the one sitting in front of us. It may be the signal sitting somewhere else – in another organisation, another sector or another part of the fraud journey – waiting to be connected.

The data already exists. The question is whether we can make better use of it – safely, proportionately and collaboratively.

The future of fraud prevention won’t necessarily belong to the organisation that becomes best at spotting fraud in isolation. It will belong to those that become best at understanding what their piece of the puzzle means when it is connected to everyone else’s.

Because to the fraudster, it was never a series of separate incidents.

It was one fraud.

Want to connect the dots?

Find out how the ThirdEye and Cifas collaboration can help bring fraud intelligence directly into your monitoring and investigation workflow. 

Talk to the ThirdEye team to find out more. 

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