New Year’s Resolutions – evolving your counter-fraud skills and business controls

It’s 2025 and a good excuse for a fresh start. Many employees will be reflecting on how they can develop and grow their careers in throughout the year, as well as add value to the organisations they work for.

To help with this, we have created our top three New Year’s resolutions to help employees strengthen their in-house counter-fraud skills, enhance fraud prevention controls within their business, and protect their colleagues from the threat of fraud and scams.

1. As the phrase goes... ‘sharing is caring’

The importance of data and intelligence sharing and the vital role it plays in preventing fraud across all sectors has been a topic of industry discussion for many years. However, crucial to this is ensuring it is shared securely and doesn’t fall into the hands of criminals. This has been raised recently not just by government ministers but also industry regulator, the Information Commissioner’s Office, which has published clear guidance on data and intelligence sharing to stop, detect and investigate scams and frauds.

Understanding the vital role of cross-sector data sharing, we have been working to ensure that Cifas members can disseminate critical data quicker and easier than ever before.

For example, our APP Victim Check service allows members to share data on the victims of Authorised Push Payment (APP) fraud to prevent them from being repeatedly targeted by criminals. In addition, our Beneficiary Checks solution provides Cifas members with the opportunity to collaborate in real-time to investigate suspicious transactions and stop APP fraud – including romance fraud, CEO fraud, impersonation fraud as well as money muling and more.

2. Brush up on current events

While we could all try to gaze into a crystal ball to predict the future, it’s probably more sensible to stay up to date with the types of fraud and scams that are impacting your industry.

Throughout 2025, there will be plenty happening in terms of new regulation, legislation and policy that could affect the way in which you strengthen your counter-fraud defences (and watch out for a blog on the Cifas website covering what to look out for this year coming soon!)

As well as keeping on top of current trends, it’s important to understand how the adoption of new technologies could also impact your organisation’s fraud prevention controls and measures, and how they can help you to better protect customers.

We have seen first-hand how valuable it can be when organisations utilise technology to transform how they fight fraud and financial crime.

Through the implementation of our customer monitoring tool, Vision, members receive real-time alerts on any changes to their customers’ risk level, meaning they can proactively respond and take action as well as protect their workforce and revenue.

Not only does the service bolster in-house efficiencies by removing manually intensive processes, Vision also enables members to securely share data and intelligence from hundreds of other businesses, spanning various sectors, so they are never behind fraud trends and emerging threats.

3. Try new things

While learning a new language or embarking on a fresh keep-fit regime may be on the New Year’s resolutions list outside of work, this can be the perfect time to get your organisation’s counter-fraud measures and controls into shape and build on your workforce’s skills.

Our External Threat Protect solution has a wide range of tools and features including Facial Matching which enhances searches by identifying cases linked by the same facial image – whether in the same or different documents.

Or maybe you’re looking to strengthen your counter-fraud insight using the Cifas Intelligence Service? This provides actionable fraud intelligence through identifiable personal data and the ability to detect suspicious conduct, helping our members to prevent more fraud and financial crime risk.

We know that the first line of defence in any business is employees. Our in-person Academy courses and virtual learning provide the essential tools and information to help improve how employees investigate and manage fraud risk, step up their counter-fraud strategies, and increase awareness of fraud trends and emerging threats.

Whatever your resolutions and goals are for the coming year, Cifas is ready to help you and your organisation with the specialist solutions and expertise needed to tackle any fraud and scams challenge head on.

Find out more and register your interest in Cifas’ External Threat Protect.