FRAUD FIGHTER SPOTLIGHT: AppFolio

In our Fraud Fighter series, Plaid is shining a spotlight on everyday people whose work helps protect consumers from the threat of bad actors.

In our latest edition, we’re spotlighting Kristina DiSanto, Senior Product Manager at AppFolio, whose work on the company’s screening product, FolioScreen™ Trusted Renter, puts her at the center of one of property management’s toughest challenges: keeping bad actors out while creating a positive leasing experience for legitimate renters.

By staying close to both property management companies and prospective renters, Kristina sees firsthand how the consequences of fraud can extend far beyond lost time or revenue. Fraud can affect families, disrupt communities, and undermine people’s sense of safety at home. Her approach is rooted in listening to customers, continually adapting as new threats emerge, and introducing what she calls “intentional friction”: making fraud harder for bad actors without making life unnecessarily difficult for everyone else.

Plaid: How did you first get into fraud prevention?

Kristina: I work on FolioScreen, AppFolio’s screening product, and I spend a significant amount of my time connecting with our customers to understand their pain points throughout the leasing cycle. Fraud always comes up first. When you’re moving someone into a community, you can either hope for the best or adopt fraud prevention tools that help you feel confident about who you’re moving in.

Plaid: What keeps you interested or motivated in this line of work?

Kristina: Fraud doesn’t just cost someone time or money. It can also impact the safety and sense of peace of communities and families.

Close friends of mine, who have a two-year-old, bought a new home. One day, a stranger showed up at their door with a moving van, expecting to move in. The stranger had paid rent to a bad actor who had posted the home online as a rental property. The scam left that person out their move-in fees and still searching for a place to live, while also disrupting my friends’ sense of safety in their own neighborhood. Fraud is everywhere, especially in property management and the housing market. We need fraud prevention tools that help people feel safe and secure where they live.

Plaid: What’s the toughest part of fighting fraud today?

Kristina: Fraud is so prevalent—and becoming more sophisticated with AI—that we need to block bad actors while still creating good experiences for everyone else. That balance is especially tricky in property management.

For example, we give our customers the option to embed Plaid Identity Verification into their rental applications and their processes for scheduling showings. That’s an extra step a prospective renter has to take. We want to make it simple enough that any prospective renter can complete it, but effective enough that bad actors are blocked or deterred. I like to call it “intentional friction.” Getting that balance right is tricky.

Plaid: What are you most proud of when you think about your fraud-fighting career?

Kristina: My team makes a real effort to connect with both our customers—property management companies—and prospective renters. We listen to them, take what they’re saying seriously without minimizing the pain points they express, and actually make changes to our product based on what we hear.

What we learn from our customers becomes what we call our “guiding policies.” One of those is: “We know a single bad actor can destroy a community.” If we learn about a new type of fraud—even if it’s less common and only one or two bad actors might slip through—it gets added to our product roadmap, and we start learning how to tackle it.

Plaid: What’s one thing you wish more people understood about fraud prevention?

Kristina: Fraud is in your community, even if you don’t like to think it is or you haven’t yet felt its impact. And speaking specifically to the property management world, I’d say there is a way to help people find housing while still preventing fraud. I’ve seen too many companies ignore fraud signals or choose not to use fraud prevention tools because they want to be “trusting” or have a “soft spot” for prospective residents. That doesn't mean assuming the worst about people, it means applying the same fair, consistent standard to every applicant, so a bad actor is stopped without penalizing everyone else trying to do the right thing.

You can still get great renters in the door while keeping bad actors out. I’ve even heard prospective renters say they appreciate when property management companies introduce a bit of friction in the form of fraud prevention. It makes them feel safer because it shows the company cares about who it’s inviting into its units.

Plaid: What impresses you about AppFolio’s approach to fraud prevention?

Kristina: We care about prospects, residents, and communities overall, not just property management companies. When a property manager can enjoy a weekend with their family because they aren't worried about who just moved in, we're happy. When a resident moves into a new space in a safe community and it feels like home, we're happy. Those are fundamental outcomes that continually guide how we approach fraud prevention. We all understand their importance because we all need a safe place to live. That impact is what motivates the teams working in this space.

Plaid: How has Plaid supported your work?

Kristina: Through our partnership with Plaid, our customers can embed Identity Verification into their rental applications and showing-scheduling processes. Just as importantly, working with Plaid opened our eyes to how much fraud we could really uncover—and that fraud isn’t limited to a fake ID.

In one example, we identified a single bad actor who had applied to more than 50 units across more than 30 property management companies and moved in 18 unknown residents. This one bad actor had essentially created a business out of moving in renters who weren’t paying rent. Now that we have Plaid’s product in place, we can help customers avoid these scenarios moving forward.

Plaid: What advice would you give someone just starting out in a similar career to yours?

Kristina: Listen to your customers and the people you’re trying to support. You’ll never know everything others are going through—and you’re not expected to. Instead, you can empathize and learn by connecting with people and diving deeply into their experiences. That’ll help you understand how to start tackling fraud.

I always joke with my customers that I’ve never been a landlord, run a property management business, or even filled out a rental application through a property management company. I’m building software products from my remote office at home with my pets! I need to learn from them to understand what they need.