FRAUD FIGHTER SPOTLIGHT

In this installment, we’re spotlighting Damarizz Medina, whose career across banking, fintech, and crypto has given her a deeply operational, forward-looking view of risk.

With experience spanning frontline investigations to enterprise risk leadership, Medina has seen how thoughtful fraud programs can protect customers, support new product launches, and ultimately act as a catalyst for sustainable growth. Now at Webull, Medina helps ensure fraud prevention evolves alongside innovation, enabling the business to move quickly without compromising customer trust.

Plaid: How did you first get into fraud prevention?

My path into fraud prevention started on the front lines of retail banking. Early in my career, I was opening accounts, handling transactions, and filing suspicious activity reports in real time. Seeing how quickly financial abuse could impact customers sparked my interest in understanding the “why” behind risk.

From there, I moved into AML investigations, spending years working complex cases, subpoenas, and high-risk activity across global financial institutions. Over time, my role expanded from investigator to leader—building teams, improving quality, and designing scalable compliance and fraud frameworks. That progression shaped how I think about fraud today: it’s not theoretical. It’s operational, customer-facing, and deeply tied to trust.

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

Fraud prevention is never static. The threat landscape is constantly changing, especially as payments become faster and financial products more innovative. I’ve worked across traditional banking, fintech, and crypto, and each environment brings new challenges that require thoughtful, practical solutions.

Strong fraud and compliance programs protect customers, support sustainable growth, and enable companies to innovate responsibly, all of which is highly motivating as well. At this stage in my career, I’m especially driven by building teams and programs that can adapt over time, taking proactive approaches rather than simply reacting to the problem in front of them.

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

One of the biggest challenges today is balancing strong fraud controls with customer experience, particularly in real-time payments and digital assets. Fraudsters move quickly, using automation, social engineering, and synthetic identities, while customers expect fast onboarding and minimal friction.

Another challenge is fragmentation. Fraud signals often live across multiple tools and teams, making it difficult to maintain a holistic view of risk. Addressing that requires strong data connectivity, clear ownership, and close collaboration across product, engineering, compliance, and operations. The toughest part isn’t just stopping fraud; it’s doing so in a way that scales and aligns with regulatory expectations.

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

I’m most proud of the progression from doing the work to building the programs. I spent years reviewing investigations, filing SARs, and managing case quality, which gave me a strong operational foundation. As my career evolved, I had the opportunity to design enterprise-level compliance and fraud frameworks, lead regulatory exams, and support new product launches in highly regulated environments. I’m especially proud of the teams I’ve built and mentored, helping people grow while raising the overall quality and maturity of fraud programs. Seeing organizations move from reactive to proactive risk management is incredibly rewarding.

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

Fraud prevention isn’t just a control function. It’s a business enabler. When done well, it allows companies to scale safely, launch new products, and maintain customer trust. It’s also not a one-time solution. Effective fraud programs require ongoing refinement, strong governance, and cross-functional collaboration. And often, the most successful fraud prevention goes unnoticed. When customers are protected without unnecessary friction, that’s usually the result of thoughtful design working behind the scenes.

Plaid: What impresses you about Webull's approach to fraud prevention?

What stands out is how intentionally fraud and compliance are integrated into product and business decisions at Webull from the start. There’s a clear understanding that fraud prevention has to evolve alongside innovation, especially as we operate across payments, brokerage, and crypto. 

The approach is layered, data-driven, and collaborative—bringing together risk, compliance, product, and engineering to solve problems holistically. That mindset allows us to scale responsibly while staying aligned with regulatory expectations and customer trust.

Plaid: How has Plaid supported your work?

Plaid is a valuable partner in strengthening identity verification and early-stage risk decisions. The quality and consistency of Plaid’s data helps us detect risk earlier in the customer lifecycle, reducing downstream fraud and unnecessary friction.

From a compliance perspective, having reliable data signals supports more confident decision-making and stronger control design. Plaid’s collaborative approach, working closely with risk and compliance teams, has also made it easier to adapt as fraud patterns and regulatory expectations continue to evolve.

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

Start by learning the fundamentals and getting as close to the work as possible. Understanding investigations, customer behavior, and regulatory expectations will give you a strong foundation.

From there, stay curious. Fraud evolves quickly, and the best professionals continue learning across technology, data, and risk. I’d also encourage people to seek cross-functional exposure: the more you understand how product, engineering, and compliance intersect, the more effective you’ll be. Finally, don’t underestimate the value of integrity and judgment. Those skills matter just as much as technical expertise in this field.