The Outlier Lab

Communities and Conferences

Practitioner communities, associations, information-sharing groups and recurring conferences relevant to transaction fraud, with who each serves and how to get value from it.

Choosing where to spend time

If you work in…Start withThen add
Ecommerce, retail, rewards/cashbackMRC; Merchant Fraud Alliance; About Fraud / Fraud Fight ClubMarketplace Risk; Money20/20
Marketplaces and platformsMarketplace Risk; MRCTrustCon and trust-and-safety research events
Banks, credit unions, neobanksABA (Fraud and Scams Exchange, AML and Fraud Conference); FS-ISAC; 314(b)ACAMS; Nacha Smarter Faster Payments
Payments, P2P, ACH originatorsNacha (Payments Innovation Alliance, SFP); MRCMerchant Advisory Group; Money20/20
Brokerage and investingFINRA resources and events; ACAMS; FS-ISACACFE (investigations); Nacha
Investigations and QAACFE; IAFCIACAMS; ABA
Identity and authenticationFIDO Alliance (Authenticate); IdentiverseBot and identity vendor user groups

Associations and membership communities

Merchant Risk Council (MRC)

A global non-profit for ecommerce payments and fraud professionals: 780+ member organizations and 13,000+ professionals in 90+ countries.

  • Events: MRC Vegas (flagship US event), MRC London, MRC Dublin, MRC San Diego. Some are member-only.
  • Resources: the annual Global eCommerce Payments and Fraud Report, the Paladin Fraud Prevention Vendor Report, on-demand courses, and the CPFPP certification (Books, Courses and Certifications).
  • Best for: merchant-side card-not-present fraud (Card-Not-Present Fraud), refund and policy abuse (Refund and Return Fraud), chargebacks, and vendor comparison.

About Fraud and Fraud Fight Club

About Fraud is a community site for fraud fighters, co-founded by PJ Rohall. It offers a provider directory, an events calendar, webinars and podcast listings.

Fraud Fight Club is its practitioner-focused event series. The format is smaller and interactive (panels, a boxing-ring stage, speed networking) rather than vendor keynotes. The 2026 edition was April 14–15 in Charlotte, NC.

Best for: cross-industry peer networking at the analyst-to-director level.

Merchant Fraud Alliance

A merchant fraud community and event. The 2026 event was October 6–7 in Chicago.

American Bankers Association (ABA)

  • ABA Fraud and Scams Exchange: a members-only online forum for sharing fraud and scam trends.
  • National Best Practices Discussion Group: deposit account fraud.
  • Other groups: the Internal Fraud Discussion Group and the Senior Protection Taskforce.
  • Events: the AML and Fraud Conference (Oct 13–15, 2026, Arlington, VA), AML and Fraud School, Financial Crimes Enforcement Conference.
  • Credential: the Certified AML and Fraud Professional (CAFP).
  • Customer campaigns: #BanksNeverAskThat and other fraud-fighting campaigns (Customer Education and Scam Warnings).
  • Best for: bank and credit union fraud, check fraud (Check and Mobile Deposit Fraud), scams.

Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (ACFE)

100,000+ members and 200+ local chapters. It runs the CFE credential, Fraud Magazine and the Fraud Talk podcast.

Events:

  • ACFE Global Fraud Conference. The 38th is July 11–16, 2027, in Philadelphia.
  • Regional conferences: Canada (Nov 15–17, 2026, Montréal), Europe (Mar 2027, Düsseldorf), Asia-Pacific (Aug 2027, Kuala Lumpur).
  • Anti-Fraud Leadership Summit; Government Anti-Fraud Summit.

Best for: investigation methodology (Investigation Standards), insider fraud (Insider Fraud), and local chapter networking. Its occupational-fraud focus means less transaction-specific content.

ACAMS

The anti-money-laundering association behind the CAMS certification and conferences such as The Assembly. It also offers a Fraud Detection and Analytics certificate.

Best for: fraud–AML convergence, mule networks (Money Mules) and SAR quality (BSA-AML and SAR Filing).

Nacha

Nacha governs the ACH Network. It runs Smarter Faster Payments: April 11–14, 2027, Gaylord National Harbor (near Washington, DC), plus a virtual Remote Connect in June 2027. It also hosts the Payments Innovation Alliance, the Risk Management Advisory Group, and the AAP/APRP accreditation communities, including the AAP & APRP Exchange.

Best for: ACH and faster-payments fraud and 2026 fraud-monitoring rule implementation (Nacha Rules and ACH Risk, ACH Funding Fraud).

International Association of Financial Crimes Investigators (IAFCI)

Investigators from law enforcement and private industry. It runs regional training events, an annual international training conference and The Protectors podcast.

Best for: law-enforcement relationships, card and check fraud investigations, and getting cases prosecuted.

Marketplace Risk

Conferences and community for marketplace and platform risk: fake accounts, seller onboarding, listing fraud, trust and safety.

2026–2027 events: New York (Sept 2026), Digital Risk Summit São Paulo (Oct 2026), Global Summit London (Nov 2–3, 2026), San Francisco (May 11–13, 2027).

Best for: Online Marketplaces, Seller Non-Delivery and Fake Listings, Buyer Protection Claim Abuse (INR and SNAD).

Information-sharing bodies

These are the channels with legal structure for sharing specific intelligence, which networking events don't have.

BodyWho can joinWhat's sharedVault links
FinCEN Section 314(b)Registered financial institutions and associationsInformation on suspected money laundering and specified unlawful activity, including fraud, under a safe harbor. New fact sheet June 12, 2026; registration via the FinCEN FI PortalBSA-AML and SAR Filing, Consortium and Data Sharing
FS-ISACFinancial institutions (membership tiers)Cyber and fraud threat intelligence, summits (e.g., Americas Spring Summit, March 2026)External Intelligence Feeds
Consortium networksCustomers of consortium vendorsNegative data, device and identity reputationCredit Bureau and Consortium Signals, Vendor Landscape
Network programsIssuers, acquirers, merchantsPre-dispute alerts, network fraud reporting (e.g., Visa TC40), first-party trust dataCard Network Dispute Rules

Recurring conferences, 2026–2027

Dates are from organizer pages and a vendor-compiled calendar, checked October 2026.

EventOrganizerNext / recent dateLocationFocus
MRC VegasMerchant Risk CouncilMar 15–18, 2027Las Vegas (ARIA)Ecommerce payments and fraud; largest merchant fraud gathering
MRC LondonMerchant Risk CouncilApr 26–28, 2027LondonEuropean merchant fraud
MRC DublinMerchant Risk CouncilNov 2–4, 2026 (member-only)DublinEuropean merchant fraud
MRC San DiegoMerchant Risk CouncilSept 14–16, 2026 (member-only)San DiegoMerchant fraud
Merchant Fraud AllianceMerchant Fraud AllianceOct 6–7, 2026ChicagoMerchant fraud
Fraud Fight ClubAbout FraudApr 14–15, 2026Charlotte, NCPractitioner-led cross-industry fraud
Marketplace Risk Management ConferenceMarketplace RiskMay 11–13, 2027San FranciscoPlatform and marketplace risk
Marketplace Risk Global SummitMarketplace RiskNov 2–3, 2026LondonPlatform risk
Money20/20 USAMoney20/20Oct 18–21, 2026Las VegasPayments, fintech; fraud, identity and agentic-commerce tracks
Money20/20 EuropeMoney20/20Jun 8–10, 2027AmsterdamEuropean payments
Smarter Faster PaymentsNachaApr 11–14, 2027National Harbor, MDACH, faster payments, payments risk
Merchant Advisory Group Payments ConferenceMerchant Advisory GroupSept 27–30, 2026NashvilleMerchant payments, including dispute policy
ABA AML and Fraud ConferenceAmerican Bankers AssociationOct 13–15, 2026Arlington, VABank fraud and AML
ACFE Global Fraud ConferenceACFEJul 11–16, 2027PhiladelphiaFraud examination and investigation
FS-ISAC Americas Spring SummitFS-ISACMar 2026OrlandoFinancial-sector threat intel
AuthenticateFIDO AllianceOct 19–21, 2026Carlsbad, CAPasskeys and phishing-resistant auth (Passkeys and Phishing-Resistant Authentication)
Identiverse(Identity industry)Jun 28–Jul 1, 2027Las VegasDigital identity, including non-human and agentic identity
APWG eCrime SymposiumAnti-Phishing Working GroupNov 2–6, 2026LisbonCybercrime research (Phishing and Credential Harvesting)
Trust & Safety Research ConferenceStanfordOct 1–2, 2026Stanford, CAOnline harms and abuse research
TrustConTrust & safety communityJul 2026 (2027 TBA)San FranciscoTrust and safety operations
Financial Crime & Cybersecurity ForumDatos InsightsSept 15–16, 2026Charlotte, NCSynthetic ID, ATO, mules, AI-generated fraud
AFP Annual ConferenceAssociation for Financial ProfessionalsNov 8–11, 2026Las VegasCorporate payments (payments fraud stage)

Vendor user conferences can be worth attending for roadmap visibility and peer contact, though they're sales events. 2026 examples included events by Quantexa, Ravelin, NICE Actimize, Socure, Riskified and Stripe.

Getting value from a conference

  • Go with three questions tied to your Fraud Risk Assessment (e.g., "How are peers handling scam-coached withdrawals on instant rails?")
  • Prioritize practitioner panels and hallway time over vendor keynotes
  • Exchange contacts for future incident pings. A peer you can text during an attack is often the most useful thing you bring home (Fraud Incident Response)
  • Write a one-page debrief within a week: new MOs, control ideas, vendor claims to test (Vendor Selection and Evaluation)
  • Log any MO in your intel intake with mechanism and rail tags (Frameworks and Taxonomies)

Online and informal communities

Much practitioner exchange happens in LinkedIn groups, invite-only Slack and Discord workspaces (often vendor-hosted), and local meetups. These are valuable, but:

  • Assume anything posted can leak. Never share internal thresholds or customer data.
  • Vendor-run communities are useful, and they also double as a sales funnel.
  • Verify members before discussing specific indicators.

Sources and further reading