To start us off, can you tell us about yourself and your role at AJ Bell?
I’m Laura Lehane, Head of Financial Crime and MLRO at AJ Bell. I joined the business in June 2024, moving into the Investment industry after 20 years in Retail Banking. I lead everything financial crime, including the design and delivery of our financial crime strategy, covering everything from fraud and AML to market abuse and sanctions. My role is about making sure we’re not just compliant, but proactive—using data, technology, and collaboration to stay ahead of emerging threats. I work closely with teams across the business to embed a strong control environment that protects our customers and supports safe growth.
One area I’m particularly passionate about is data sharing. I’ve seen first-hand how effective it can be in disrupting fraud and protecting customers, and I’m committed to driving change across the industry to make it the norm, not the exception. Whether it’s working with other platforms, regulators, or the markets themselves, I believe collaboration is the key to really disrupting the criminals.
Can you provide a brief outline of how online engagement tactics, such as fraudulent ads and impersonation, exploit user behaviour on digital platforms?
Absolutely. Fraudsters are getting smarter about how they use digital platforms to manipulate behaviour, especially in scams like pump and dump. It usually starts with a convincing ad or social media post that looks legitimate. Once someone clicks through, they’re quickly moved onto WhatsApp or Telegram, where the real manipulation kicks in.
They’ll start by promoting genuine stocks that deliver small, steady returns, just enough to build trust. Then they pivot to the stock they’ve lined up for the pump. The group gets flooded with charts, graphs, and technical jargon, often designed to confuse rather than inform. They’ll falsify data, reference fake news articles, and impersonate analysts or firms to create urgency and credibility.
It’s a calculated strategy: build trust, create hype, and then exit once the price peaks—leaving retail investors exposed. Because it all happens in closed groups, it’s harder to detect until the damage is done. That’s why early intervention and platform collaboration are so important.
How can industry collaboration effectively prevent scams originating on platforms like social media and other digital platforms?
We’ve seen real disruption when firms come together and share intelligence across platforms. Through collaboration with other investment platforms, we’ve been able to spot patterns early and intervene before scams escalate. That kind of joined-up approach has led to measurable reductions in customer losses, particularly around scams and investment fraud.
We’re also looking at how we can extend this collaboration to the stock markets themselves, especially in cases where trading activity is being manipulated as part of wider scam operations. There’s a huge opportunity here to build a more connected response—one that spans platforms, markets, and regulators.
And now, with the new data sharing powers under ECCTA, we’ve got the legal framework to really harness that potential. It gives us the ability to move faster, share more meaningfully, and act with confidence. Fraud doesn’t operate in silos, and neither should our defences. The more we collaborate, the more we raise the bar for prevention across the industry.
What are some of the key hurdles in co-ordinating cross-sector responses to reduce scam exposure?
One of the biggest challenges is fragmentation. Different sectors have different priorities, systems, and regulatory frameworks, which makes coordination complex. There’s also the issue of data sharing—we need to be able to exchange information quickly and securely, but that’s not always straightforward.
There are some strong initiatives out there, like FIRE and Data Fusion, which have made real progress in the retail banking space. But outside of that, it’s been harder to get traction. As an investment platform, we’ve had to be quite assertive to be heard, especially when engaging with larger players like the banks, or bodies like UK Finance and the NCA. Sometimes it feels like we’re just asking for a seat at the table—or even just an invite to the party. And if we get it, we promise to bring the good snacks.
That said, we’re making progress. There’s growing recognition that the data we hold is incredibly valuable, and we’re starting to see real interest in bringing us into the fold. If we could combine that full suite of intelligence—across banks, platforms, telcos, and markets—the ability to properly identify and disrupt fraud would be exponential. It’s not just about plugging gaps; it’s about building a truly integrated defence. And we’re pushing hard to make that happen.
Please can you provide a couple of recent examples of collaboration success stories?
I’ll be sharing more details in my session at the summit, but for a bit of a teaser – The first is a multi-platform SIPP fraud that had been running for over three years. Within just a few months of sharing intelligence across platforms, we were able to piece together the full picture and effectively all but shut it down. That kind of result shows what’s possible when we break out of silos and start connecting the dots.
The second is the recent Ostin Technology pump and dump case, where coordinated data sharing across platforms allowed us to identify and disrupt a scam that was gaining traction fast. The global impact of losses from this scam is estimated to be around $500mn, yes half a BILLION dollars. By working with other platforms and surfacing intelligence early, along with proactive intervention and customer education, we were able to intervene and significantly reduce customer harm—something that wouldn’t have been possible without that collaborative effort.
These cases prove that when we collaborate—especially with the right data and the right partners—we can move from reactive to proactive. The intelligence is there. The challenge is making sure it’s shared, understood, and acted on. And when it is, the impact is huge.