How Fraud Networks Hide in Plain Sight And How to Stop Them | João Moura, Founder & CEO at Fraudio

João Moura built a fraud detection platform operating in 188 countries not by making fraud prevention safer, but by turning it into a growth lever. This conversation gets into how organized crime runs modern fraud, why siloed data guarantees you'll lose, and how connecting institutions across borders changes everything. What you'll learn Why 70% of fraud today is backed by organized crime networks, and what that means for your detection strategy (02:46) How mule accounts operate as layered networks across institutions and why catching one account misses the point (32:20) What false declines actually cost you in revenue, customer trust, and operational overhead (09:03) How fraud detection becomes a growth enabler when it lets acquirers onboard merchants same-day with confidence (20:19) Why connecting data across institutions creates a network effect that makes every client's fraud model stronger (28:40) What the third generation of AI-powered fraud detection looks like and why it's fundamentally different from siloed models (14:45) How agentic AI introduces a new authorization problem that nobody in payments has solved yet (37:15) What João learned about distribution, decisiveness, and sunk cost fallacies after spinning Fraudio out of a bank (46:20) TIMESTAMPS 1:35 João's background: 20 years in AI before it was cool 2:46 How organized crime powers modern fraud 7:55 The real cost of false declines on revenue and customers 14:45 Three generations of AI fraud detection explained 16:34 How generative AI acts as a force multiplier for fraud teams 20:19 Detecting fraudulent merchants before chargebacks arrive 25:13 How much fraud Fraudio actually stops: the numbers 28:40 The Philippines rule that becomes available to 188 countries 32:20 Why mule accounts are really mule networks 37:15 Agentic AI and the unresolved authorization problem 43:30 The lazy insight that became Fraudio 46:20 What João learned: distribution, decisiveness, and sunk cost fallacies 👉 Connect with João: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mourajoao Website: https://www.fraudio.com/ 👉 Connect with Monica: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/monicamillares/ Website: https://fintech-product-ai-lab.lovable.app/ Disclaimer: This episode does not constitute professional nor financial advice and does not represent the opinion nor views of my current, past or future employers. The guest has agreed to record and release our conversation for the use of this podcast and promotion in social media.