Building Real Defence Against Financial Fraud

Practical training that helps Australian businesses and individuals recognize schemes before they cause damage. Not theory—actual patterns scammers use right now.

After working with over 200 businesses across Australia who've dealt with fraud attempts, we noticed something. Most people can spot obvious scams. But the sophisticated ones? Those slip through because they exploit trust, urgency, and normal business processes. Our program focuses on those grey areas where even careful people get caught.

How the Program Actually Works

We run cohorts twice yearly—September and March. Each session limits to 25 participants because smaller groups mean you can ask questions about your specific situation.

1

Recognition Foundations

Learn how to spot manipulation tactics in emails, calls, and invoices. We break down real cases from 2024 where businesses lost money, then show you the red flags they missed.

Weeks 1-4
2

Business Process Protection

Most fraud happens during payment approvals and vendor changes. You'll walk through your own workflows and identify where scammers typically insert themselves.

Weeks 5-8
3

Response Protocols

What do you actually do when you realize something's wrong? We cover immediate actions, who to contact, and how to minimize damage. Plus legal obligations you need to know about.

Weeks 9-12
4

Team Implementation

The best systems fail if your staff aren't on board. You'll create simple training materials you can actually use with your team, not complex documents nobody reads.

Weeks 13-16

Why We Started Teaching This

Back in 2022, a construction company in Brisbane lost $180,000 to an email that looked exactly like their regular supplier invoices. The difference? One letter in the bank account number. The accounts person who processed it had been there 8 years and was usually meticulous.

That's when we realized traditional cybersecurity training wasn't cutting it. People don't need to understand encryption or technical jargon. They need to recognize when something feels slightly off, and they need permission to double-check without feeling paranoid.

Our first cohort in September 2023 included 18 participants from retail, healthcare, and professional services. Six of them caught fraud attempts within three months of finishing. Not because we gave them magic detection tools—just because they knew what to look for.

Workshop session showing participants reviewing case studies of financial fraud patterns

Who You'll Learn From

Three people with different backgrounds who've all dealt with fraud from various angles. No academic theorists here.

Elowen Thackray, fraud investigation specialist

Elowen Thackray

Investigation Specialist

Spent 12 years investigating financial crimes for Australian Federal Police before moving into prevention work. She's seen the aftermath enough times to know what actually stops fraud versus what just makes people feel safer.

Briony Kellaway, former banking security analyst

Briony Kellaway

Banking Security

Worked at Commonwealth Bank and Westpac analyzing fraud patterns across business accounts. She brings real transaction data (anonymized, obviously) that shows how scammers actually operate day-to-day.

Saskia Lindroth, small business fraud recovery consultant

Saskia Lindroth

Recovery Consultant

Helps businesses recover after fraud hits. She understands the emotional and financial stress that follows, and teaches prevention from that perspective—what people wish they'd known before it happened.

What Happens After the Program

These are actual participants from our 2024 cohorts. We check in with everyone at 3, 6, and 12 months to see how they're applying what they learned.

Margot Quillan

Operations Manager, Medical Practice (Perth)

Three months after finishing the program, Margot received an email from their pathology supplier requesting updated banking details. The email looked perfect—right logo, correct contact name, even referenced a recent order.

But she remembered the session on urgency tactics. The email said they needed the update within 24 hours to "avoid payment processing issues." That pressure felt manufactured.

What She Did

Called the supplier directly using the number from their website, not the email. Turned out it was a scam—the real supplier had no idea about the email. Would have cost them around $23,000.

Idalia Neustadt

Finance Director, Tech Startup (Melbourne)

Idalia's company was growing fast, processing dozens of invoices weekly. After the program, she implemented a simple verification step: any payment over $5,000 to a new vendor required verbal confirmation from two people.

Sounds basic, but it caught two fraudulent invoices in eight months. One was sophisticated—a fake legal services bill with legitimate-looking case numbers and everything.

Long-Term Impact

The verification process adds maybe 10 minutes per week but has already prevented over $40,000 in losses. Her CFO now recommends the program to other startups in their network.

Office environment showing verification processes being implemented

Next Cohort Starts September 2025

Applications open in June. The program runs 16 weeks with weekly 90-minute sessions (Tuesday evenings, 6:30-8pm AEST). Cost is $2,400 per person, which includes all materials and 12 months of follow-up support.

Register Your Interest