Beyond the Five Eyes: what global fraud landscapes can teach us

Clue was proud to sponsor this year’s International Society of Economic Criminology (ISEC) conference, which brought together researchers, practitioners, government representatives and industry leaders to explore the latest developments in fraud, economic crime, illicit finance, AI-enabled threats and regulatory responses. The event provides a valuable opportunity to connect leading research with practical challenges faced by those working on the front line of economic crime.  

As part of the programme, Clue’s Head of Economic Crime, Laura Eshelby, joined Michael Betts, Head of Capability at the Government Counter Fraud Profession, to share findings from Beyond the Five Eyes: Mapping the Invisible, a comparative study of fraud across Colombia, Germany, Pakistan and Kenya.  

Fraud follows the contours of its environment

The research explored how economic conditions, digital infrastructure and regulatory maturity influence the types of fraud seen in different countries. A key finding was that fraud does not develop in isolation. Instead, patterns of offending are closely linked to a nation’s economic and technological landscape, meaning changes in connectivity, digital adoption and economic development can often help predict emerging fraud risks.  

The comparison revealed distinct risk profiles across the four countries. In Pakistan and Kenya, high levels of mobile adoption have contributed to fraud typologies centred on social engineering, mobile-money fraud, account takeover and application-based scams. Colombia’s expanding digital economy faces growing threats from identity fraud, account creation fraud and trade-based money laundering, while Germany’s highly connected economy is increasingly exposed to sophisticated threats including AI-enabled fraud, deepfake impersonation and large-scale cross-border tax fraud.  

Taken together, the findings suggest that as economies become more digitally mature, fraud evolves from high-volume consumer scams towards increasingly complex, automated and institutionally targeted activity.  

What can practitioners learn?

The presentation also highlighted innovative responses from across the four countries. These included Kenya’s use of asset recovery powers, Pakistan’s dedicated fraud reporting infrastructure, Colombia’s exploration of risk-based AI regulation and Germany’s approach to cross-border enforcement and corporate accountability.  

Three overarching lessons emerged: 

• Context is predictive: economic and digital infrastructure indicators can help forecast future fraud typologies. 
• Close the infrastructure gap: cyber resilience, awareness and fraud prevention must keep pace with technology adoption. 
• Learn across borders: practitioners can strengthen local responses by adopting successful approaches from other jurisdictions.  

Looking beyond familiar jurisdictions provides a valuable opportunity to identify emerging threats, explore new counter-fraud approaches and better understand how economic crime is evolving globally. 

Finally, the review also highlighted that effective fraud control and management, requires integrated prevention, detection, enforcement and recovery mechanisms. 

Counter fraud and economic crime threats are constantly evolving. If you’re looking to strengthen your intelligence, investigation or case management capabilities, Clue can help you connect the dots and respond with greater confidence.