The Fraud Women’s Network (FWN) is about to mark its first ten years with an event. We spoke to two of the board directors beforehand.
They’re independent consultant Toni Sless, co-director of The Risk Avengers, who Una Riley interviewed in the network’s early days, in 2009; and Katy Worobec, Director of the UK payments industry body Financial Fraud Action UK (FFA UK). Toni began by saying that the membership has been constant, with a lot of returning members each year; some may not renew as their career paths change, or their personal lives; but then some return later. To state the obvious, and as the two agree, there’s evidently a call for a networking group for women working in the fraud prevention arena.
Diversified
Toni, pictured, said: “And I think as well it was set out originally for the fraud prevention arena, but as the enablers to fraud have now changed significantly, our membership has diversified significantly too, so not only do we cover the usual, law enforcement, government agencies, financial industry and telecoms, and law firms of course, we also now cut across forensic accounting and forensic investigations; quite a lot of people involved in the information security, cyber-security arena as well. It’s lovely to see that as the crimes have changed, we have been able to accommodate and adapt to that, which equally has been shown with the types of events that we host.” Katy picked that up: “There’s a huge range of different types of fraud; we have occasionally repeated topics that have been popular, but there’s never a dull moment as fraud as fraud is concerned, there’s always different angles.” One recent event heard about the trade in art and cultural properties. As someone working in fraud for a number of years I have always learned something, I have never been disappointed in that respect.”
Some background
Toni is founder and chairwoman, and Katy deputy chairwoman, of the FWN. They thanked their steering committee, and sponsors. Membership costs haven’t gone up in those ten years. Yet such groups do not just happen; some industry bodies in wider private security have waned. Toni recalls: “It wasn’t something we said, ‘this has got longevity’; there was a need for it at the time.”
Members and guests can say a toast to that on Tuesday evening, April 4 at Sadler’s Wells in London. A panel of invited speakers – an example that the Network isn’t all-female – is Alison Levitt QC, Partner and Head of the Business Crime group at law firm Mishcon de Reya; Katy Worobec; and Donald Toon, Director, Prosperity of the National Crime Agency (NCA).
As an aside, as a sign of how fraud work is burgeoning, and how women are represented in it, Mishcon de Reya’s Business Crime Group, which sits within the Dispute Resolution department, was set up in 2014; and that department is responsible for over a third of the firm’s revenue.
The Network is holding its next networking dinner in London EC1 on April 25, where guests include Lady Barbara Judge, who chairs the fraud prevention trade body Cifas; and Sharon Barber, who since 2015 has been Group IT Cyber Security and Risk Director at Lloyds Bank. Visit www.fraudwomensnetwork.com.
For the full interview see the April 2017 print issue of Professional Security magazine.
