In the latest episode of Unseen Money, we talk about the recent $4.5 million fraud committed against Ol’ga Serova, a 71-year-old former bureaucrat from Samara, Russia. We discuss:

• KGB legacy: how Russian scammers play on people’s long-standing fear of the authorities
• Greed, fear and social engineering by country: how the weak points of fraud victims vary in Russia, the US and Europe
• Big brother in Singapore: new state powers to freeze the bank accounts of potential fraud victims
• AML, KYC and Timur’s past struggles to receive his salary into a UK bank account
• Fintechs fail: the knock-on effects from the UK’s new compensation rules for victims of authorised push payment fraud
• Will new in-app communication channels help prevent payment scams?
• Why small, iterative changes in anti-fraud technology are best
• Survival of the fittest: why the weakest and least secure payments firms must go under.