Monzo Staff Weekly Q&A - Shak Welch (COps, Financial Crime Specialist)

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Note : All Monzo Q&As to date can be found here :grinning:

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What’s up folks? Hope you’re all doing well. The usual amount of time has passed between the last Q&A and this thread. It’s pretty regular. We don’t like to leave you hanging. Life at Monzo moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.

That’s why we keep you in the loop, and give YOU the opportunity to ask us questions!

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I have returned from Cardiff and what an adventure it was. This Thursday I will be travelling to Manchester for a Monzo Meetup! Fancy joining us? Here’s the link!

We’re still racing towards a million customers. Not long now… not long.

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In this week’s Q&A we’re gonna talk about… crime. Fasten yo’ seatbelts.

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But first you gotta catch up with all the previous Q&As!

Click here to see all previous Q&As

Week 1 : Chris MacLean, Customer Operations & Vulnerable Customers :santa:t2:

Week 2 : James Nicholson, iOS Engineer :green_apple:

Week 3 : Tara Mansfield, People Operations Manager :woman_technologist:t5::man_technologist:t3:

Week 4 : James Routley, Backend Engineer :hammer_and_wrench:

Week 5 : Hugh Wells, Customer Operations :man_police_officer:t3:

Week 6 : Naz Malik, Technical Specialist :computer:

Week 7 : Fred Morgan, COps Squad Captain (Calls & Social Media) :telephone_receiver:

Week 8 : Emma Northcott, COps Scaling Team :balance_scale:

Week 9 : Jarno Wolf, COps Financial Crime Specialist & Squad Captain :wolf:

Week 10 : Maria Campbell, Head of People :woman_office_worker:t2::man_office_worker:t4:

Week 11 : Jim Amey, Night COps Captain :bat: :crescent_moon:

Week 12 : Richard Cook, Online Community Manager :man_cook:

Week 13 : Beatrice Borbon, Content & Press Manager :newspaper:

Week 14 : Tom Blomfield, CEO :crown:

Week 15 : Ella Johanny, COps/Hiring :handshake:

Week 16 : Harry Ashbridge, Writer :writing_hand:t3:

Week 17 : Beth Scott, Overnight COps :cat2:

Week 18 : Georgie Parmenter, Executive Assistant to the Founders :blonde_woman:

Week 19 : Vulnerable Customers Team :sunflower:

Week 20 : Leah Templeman, Interim VP People :sun_with_face:

Week 21 : Daniel Chatfield, Backend Engineer, Fincrime & Security :closed_lock_with_key:

Week 22 : Valerio Magliulo, Product Manager - Revenue Team :money_with_wings:

Week 23 : Sam Watkin, Operations Analyst :thinking:

Week 24 : Kieran McHugh, Backend Engineer :desktop_computer:

Week 25 : Jonas Huckestein, Co-Founder and Chief Technical Officer :computer_mouse:

Week 26 : Annual Report Edition with Tristan Thomas and Julie Oey :calendar:

Week 27 : Zander Brade, Lead Product Designer :pencil2:

Week 28 : Richard Dingwall, Payments Engineer :moneybag: :wrench:

Week 29 : Oliver Beattie, Head of Engineering (Reliability Report Special) :watch:

Week 30 : Bruno Vaz Moço, Product Manager (Scalers) :balance_scale:

Week 31 : Dillon Van Auken, Remote COps Team Lead and Vegas Project Team Lead :first_quarter_moon_with_face: 🂡

Week 32 : Rhys Davies, COps Cardiff Office :dragon:

Week 33 : Emily Parrett, COps Call & The Gang :phone:

Week 34 : Liam Houghton, Ops Fixer :hammer_and_wrench:

Week 35 : Frances Coyle, Legal Team :scroll:

Done? Then let’s get down to business.

This week’s guest in the Hot Coral Hot Seat™️ is none other than Shak Welch, a Financial Crime Specialist in our Customer Operations (COps) team!

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Shak has been here since September 2017 and works on:

Preventing financial crime loss and and having amazing conversations with users!

Fun Fact About Shak!

She got to the penultimate round of the application to be on Junior Apprentice, and she’s obsessed with the colour red to the point where she always carries something red on her at all times :grinning:

Her favorite thing about working at Monzo is :

No 2 days are the same AND I LOVE IT!

Alright folks, get your questions in and Shak will be here later this week to answer them!

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This week’s Q&A has landed - get your questions in for Shak! :grinning:

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Hey Shak :wave:

  1. Where did your journey into the murky depths of FinCrime and banking start?

got to the penultimate round of the application to be on Junior Apprentice

How did I not know this?! What was your pitch? :slight_smile:

  1. Do you like McDonalds?
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Hi Shak,

Are the methods used by fraudsters fairly predictable or are they constantly changing?

How much are best practice and potential risks shared between banks?

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Shak, my gal!

(Cos’ I know ya) What’s your favourite anime? :tv:

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What’s been the most bizarre excuse/story you’ve seen from a fraudster?

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How common is the ’ report card lost/stolen just before a flight and buy things with the offline terminal ’ trick?

And what’s the usual outcome.

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Has anyone ever reported that they have had their card stolen and the only things bought was a pineapple and a pizza?

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If I was looking to start a career as a financial criminal, where would be a good place to start?

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What’s the most far fetched financial crime you’ve come across?

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ICYMI the money laundering operation required to turn the P≤16% events of

  • the Leave campaign,
  • Trump’s election, and
  • the continued influence of the ERG

into the certainties they are today takes pretty far fetched financial crime. :thinking:

Although it’s unlikely @shak will have come across these with Monzo (and other fintech) being much hotter on AML than, say, HSBC or Deutsche Bank. :man_shrugging:

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Hi!

Is it “murky depths” of financial crime, or is it “same old, same old”? How much of what you find is novel?

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I’m so confused - have the questions been answered yet? :see_no_evil:

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No they haven’t

Edit: I’m not bothered but don’t understand person above saying they enjoyed it :joy::joy:

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Good morning :female_detective:

Thank you all for asking some really great questions :pray: I will be answering all questions at 14:00 today :smile:

See you soon,

Shak :wave:

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Do you deal with internal financial crime :eyes: ? be interested to hear if Monzo have encountered this yet

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Good luck Shak!

What’s the funniest excuse a fraudster has given? :slight_smile:

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Who watches the watchers :thinking:

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How do you make sure accounts are which are mistakenly flagged as being involved in fraud etc are unblocked as quickly as possible?

Do banks share information between them about accounts they’ve either closed or temporarily blocked do to fraud/money laundering/kyc concerns?

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Hi Hugh ! :raised_hands:

  1. I was working for a traditional high street bank on the teller line and was dealing with an account closure request from a supposed family member of the deceased bank account. Sensitive situation to deal with, however the death certificate didn’t look legitimate and the ID was fake! It was at this moment, a young Shak found interest in financial crime prevention! I have worked in a few financial institutions and as a special constable for a few years :policewoman: before joining Monzo.

  2. This is actually very embarrassing and I am not too sure how I made it this far :smirk:. My pitch was a ‘Fan pack’! The idea came about when I was at a family home in Barbados and everyone was sweating. I basically charged money for a fanning service and the price increased based on the length of fanning time and any additional services e.g. providing drinks. I did have better Ideas as I progressed through the stages, but this is the one that kickstarted my application. Like I said, very embarrassing and I was a lot younger!

  3. Are 20 nuggets really a sharing box? :upside_down_face:

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