KINGSTON, Jamaica — As fraudulent activities increase, fraud analyst and investigator Naujae Lee has been helping scores of victims recover stolen funds through her Confinance Fraud Consulting Firm.

With over six years of experience developing and implementing fraud prevention strategies, Lee has helped institutions in the United States save more than US$2 million. Her efforts have led to a 25 per cent reduction in fraudulent transactions, a 15 per cent boost in customer satisfaction, and the prosecution of fraudsters that resulted in the recovery of US$250,000.

“It all comes down to investigation, really. There are times when you get discouraged. There are times when even though you’re helping clients, they don’t want to help you because they’re afraid of the fraudster or they’re embarrassed. But, you have to have persistence and that’s what I do. Recovery is not a guarantee, and that’s why you should be in a preventative state, and so I try to prevent rather than recover,” Lee told Observer Online.

Lee’s passion for fighting against fraud started with a role she took at American Express as a dispute/fraud analyst in 2018. After three years with the company, she decided to move on. The fraud analyst later secured a position as a senior analyst and investigator for the Tennessee Credit Union. She currently contracts for different financial institutions while running her private firm.

The Mona High School alumna earned her tertiary education at Broward College in Florida and is currently studying fraud and financial crime at Utica University in New York.

The professional noted a troubling link between dancehall music and fraudulent behaviour.

“Honestly, the ‘meech’ lifestyle… you’re no longer cool to be well dressed or to be able to dance or sing which used to be the ‘cool guys’ for us when we were growing up. We’re in an era where the scammers are the cool kids. There’s no shame in it anymore. It’s not something that you would have to hide,” she said.

While Lee primarily works independently at her firm, she occasionally contracts the service of an additional two people to assist with piecing information together where necessary.

She specialises in businesses.

“I present them with their problems. I focus on how easy it might be for scammers to infiltrate their systems based on the software that I have and that sparks a conversation. So then, the conversation becomes, ‘what are you going to do now to protect your clients?’” she said, noting that business owners don’t always want to invest in proper security measures to combat criminals.

In the meantime, she is encouraging the public to take measures to protect themselves against these attempts.

“As an individual, you have to be hypersensitive to emails, to certain companies that you do business with; don’t save your cards to any types of websites and I would always say if something feels like it’s wrong, just don’t do it,” she said.

— Kediesha Perry