How to hire a fraud investigator

How to hire a fraud investigator, step by step

Here's a step-by-step fraud investigator hiring guide:

• Step 1: Identify your hiring needs
• Step 2: Create an ideal candidate profile
• Step 3: Make a budget
• Step 4: Write a fraud investigator job description
• Step 5: Post your job
• Step 6: Interview candidates
• Step 7: Send a job offer and onboard your new fraud investigator
• Step 8: Go through the hiring process checklist

What does a fraud investigator do?

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1. Identify your hiring needs

   First, determine the employments status of the fraud investigator you need to hire. Certain fraud investigator roles might require a full-time employee, whereas others can be done by part-time workers or contractors.

   Determine employee vs contractor status

   Is the person you're thinking of hiring a US citizen or green card holder?

   Yes

   No

   A fraud investigator's background is also an important factor in determining whether they'll be a good fit for the position. For example, fraud investigators from different industries or fields will have radically different experiences and will bring different viewpoints to the role. You also need to consider the candidate's previous level of experience to make sure they'll be comfortable with the job's level of seniority.

   The following list breaks down different types of fraud investigators and their corresponding salaries.

   Type of Fraud Investigator	Description	Hourly rate
   Fraud Investigator		$15-35
   Fraud Analyst	Fraud analysts are responsible for monitoring bank accounts, accounting paperwork, and financial transactions. They analyze the data to identify any fraudulent and suspicious activities within an organization... Show more	$14-44
   Investigator	Criminal investigators play an essential role in criminal justice and law enforcement. Their job entails solving open cases that may take them weeks or even months to accomplish... Show more	$20-57

2. Create an ideal candidate profile

   Common skills:

   • Law Enforcement Agencies
   • Investigative Reports
   • Fraud Investigations
   • Criminal Justice
   • Financial Institutions
   • Fraud Claims
   • Fraud Trends
   • In-Depth Investigations
   • Data Analysis
   • Fraud Prevention
   • BSA
   • Fraud Losses
   • Fraud Cases
   • Management System

   Check all skills

   Responsibilities:

   • Manage corporate-wide document production relative to complex litigation cases.
   • Detect and investigate fraudulent transactions such as money laundering, check forgeries, unauthorize ACH transfers and debit card fraud.
   • Review ISO reports and maintain close contact with police agencies working on fraud investigations.
   • Pursue recovery of bank funds through ACH processes, restitution from perpetrator and customer through criminal and civil means.
   • Write suspicious activity reports, address fraud alerts, and other applicable AML processes in accordance with regulations and time limitations.
   • Work on the development of a client application site determining the AML decision making rules, alerts, validation and verification.

   More fraud investigator duties

3. Make a budget

   Including a salary range in your fraud investigator job description is one of the best ways to attract top talent. A fraud investigator can vary based on:

   • Location. For example, fraud investigators' average salary in tennessee is 51% less than in new york.
   • Seniority. Entry-level fraud investigators 57% less than senior-level fraud investigators.
   • Certifications. A fraud investigator with certifications usually earns a higher salary.
   • Company. Working for an established firm or a new start-up company can make a big difference in a fraud investigator's salary.

   Average fraud investigator salary

   $49,010yearly

   $23.56 hourly rate

   ---

   Entry-level fraud investigator salary

   $32,000 yearly salary

   Updated January 21, 2026

   Average fraud investigator salary by state

   Rank	State	Avg. salary	Hourly rate
   1	California	$74,034	$36
   2	New York	$73,097	$35
   3	Delaware	$72,394	$35
   4	Pennsylvania	$71,396	$34
   5	District of Columbia	$69,272	$33
   6	Nevada	$60,610	$29
   7	Ohio	$56,308	$27
   8	Massachusetts	$56,226	$27
   9	New Hampshire	$52,815	$25
   10	Illinois	$51,561	$25
   11	Arizona	$50,439	$24
   12	Kansas	$47,530	$23
   13	North Dakota	$47,272	$23
   14	Texas	$46,957	$23
   15	Florida	$45,605	$22
   16	Virginia	$43,481	$21
   17	North Carolina	$41,879	$20
   18	Colorado	$39,919	$19
   19	Georgia	$39,330	$19
   20	Minnesota	$38,599	$19

   Average fraud investigator salary by company

   Company

   Rank	Company	Average salary	Hourly rate	Job openings
   1	Deutsche Bank	$98,369	$47.29	2
   2	BMO Capital Markets	$89,866	$43.20
   3	Morgan Stanley	$85,687	$41.20	2
   4	Udemy	$83,766	$40.27
   5	Ernst & Young	$83,620	$40.20	14
   6	Expedia Group	$81,197	$39.04	1
   7	Sandy Spring Bank	$75,760	$36.42
   8	Robinhood	$73,916	$35.54	4
   9	HCSC	$72,612	$34.91
   10	First Hawaiian Bank	$71,390	$34.32	2
   11	Old Second Bank	$71,194	$34.23
   12	Spectrum	$68,213	$32.79
   13	Tufts Health Plan	$67,049	$32.24
   14	Digital Federal Credit Union	$65,003	$31.25
   15	Elevance Health	$64,432	$30.98
   16	Geisinger Medical Center	$63,657	$30.60
   17	Tri-State Bank of Memphis	$62,606	$30.10
   18	Seacoast Bank	$62,397	$30.00	14
   19	Price Chopper Supermarkets-Market 32	$60,368	$29.02
   20	MSU Federal Credit Union	$59,137	$28.43

4. Writing a fraud investigator job description

   A job description for a fraud investigator role includes a summary of the job's main responsibilities, required skills, and preferred background experience. Including a salary range can also go a long way in attracting more candidates to apply, and showing the first name of the hiring manager can also make applicants more comfortable. As an example, here's a fraud investigator job description:

   Fraud investigator job description example

   Lowe's is able to offer remote employment of this position in the following states: AL, AR, AZ, CA(salaried roles only), CT, CO, DE, FL, GA, IA, ID, IL, IN, KS, KY, LA, MD, MA, ME, MI, MN, MO, MS, MT, NC, ND, NE, NH, NJ, NM, NV, NY, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VA, VT, WA, WI, WV, WY.
   
   The primary purpose of this role is to identify, mitigate, and prevent losses and abuses related to Lowe's e-commerce platform and store support system including the identification, reduction, and elimination of criminally and fraudulently obtained payment methods on Lowe's e-commerce platform, preventing the fulfillment of illegally and fraudulently obtained Lowe's products and services, preventing chargeback losses to all Lowe's fulfillment nodes, and mitigating margin losses related to coupon, discount, and pricing abuses. This role is critical to Lowe's because it is responsible for approximately $300 million in annual loss mitigation with minimal customer impact.
   Key Responsibilities:
   
   * Mitigates liability and risks relates to criminal activity and store-support fulfillment processes by developing fraud rules and manually reviewing orders in the fraud application to overall increase approval rates and maintain flow through of positive orders
   * Enables positive customer transactions and sales maximization with the ecommerce environment via positive customer identification and sales facilitation
   * Identifies and assesses high risk e-commerce transactions to ensure the conversion of legitimate orders and the reduction/elimination of fraudulent transactions from the fulfillment process
   * Manages and develops Lowe's fraud platform and related tools in real-time to identify and resolve e-commerce abuse including coupon and discount abuse, pricing abuse, affiliate abuse, payment failure abuse, bot attacks, gift card abuse, etc.
   * Provides training, guidance, and direction to field and corporate teams that handle potentially fraudulent e-commerce orders including Store Management, Loss Prevention, Contact Centers, Gift Card Sales, Distribution Centers, Lowe's Digital and Payment Card Operations
   * Analyzes e-commerce fraud trends and develops strategies to mitigate chargeback losses for web-based sales such as how to process high risk but debatable orders
   * Initiates and executes complex fraud investigations in partnership with federal, state, and local law enforcement by setting up required data, collecting information, and supplying subpoena for field teams to investigate
   * Communicates with vendor partnerships to ensure Lowe's fraud platform is current with or ahead of industry and market trends
   
   Required Qualifications:
   
   * Bachelor's degree
   * LPC Certification, CFI Certification, CFE Certification, or commiserate work-related experience
   * 3 years of loss prevention, risk, or e-commerce fraud experience
   
   About Lowe's
   
   Lowe's Companies, Inc. (NYSE: LOW) is a FORTUNE 50 home improvement company serving approximately 19 million customer transactions a week in the United States and Canada. With fiscal year 2021 sales of over $96 billion, Lowe's and its related businesses operate or service nearly 2,200 home improvement and hardware stores and employ over 300,000 associates. Based in Mooresville, N.C., Lowe's supports the communities it serves through programs focused on creating safe, affordable housing and helping to develop the next generation of skilled trade experts. For more information, visit Lowes.com.
   
   #LI-81BMAT

   Copy this example

   

5. Post your job

   There are a few common ways to find fraud investigators for your business:

   • Promoting internally or recruiting from your existing workforce.
   • Ask for referrals from friends, family members, and current employees.
   • Attend job fairs at local colleges to meet candidates with the right educational background.
   • Use social media platforms like LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter to recruit passive job-seekers.

   Post your job online:

   • Post your fraud investigator job on Zippia to find and recruit fraud investigator candidates who meet your exact specifications.
   • Use field-specific websites.
   • Post a job on free websites.

6. Interview candidates

   Your first interview with fraud investigator candidates should focus on their interest in the role and background experience. As the hiring process goes on, you can learn more about how they'd fit into the company culture in later rounds of interviews.

   Remember to include a few questions that allow candidates to expand on their strengths in their own words. Asking about their unique skills might reveal things you'd miss otherwise. At this point, good candidates can move on to the technical interview.

   The right interview questions can help you assess a candidate's hard skills, behavioral intelligence, and soft skills.

7. Send a job offer and onboard your new fraud investigator

   Once you've selected the best fraud investigator candidate for the job, it's time to write an offer letter. In addition to salary, this letter should include details about the benefits and perks you offer the candidate. Ensuring that your offer is competitive is essential, as qualified candidates may be considering other job opportunities. The candidate may wish to negotiate the terms of the offer, and you should be open to discussion. After you reach an agreement, the final step is formalizing the agreement with a contract.

   It's equally important to follow up with applicants who don't get the job with an email letting them know that the position has been filled.

   Once that's done, you can draft an onboarding schedule for the new fraud investigator. Human Resources should complete Employee Action Forms and ensure that onboarding paperwork is completed, including I-9s, benefits enrollment, federal and state tax forms, etc. They should also ensure that new employee files are created for internal recordkeeping.

8. Go through the hiring process checklist

   • Determine employee type (full-time, part-time, contractor, etc.)
   • Submit a job requisition form to the HR department
   • Define job responsibilities and requirements
   • Establish budget and timeline
   • Determine hiring decision makers for the role
   • Write job description
   • Post job on job boards, company website, etc.
   • Promote the job internally
   • Process applications through applicant tracking system
   • Review resumes and cover letters
   • Shortlist candidates for screening
   • Hold phone/virtual interview screening with first round of candidates
   • Conduct in-person interviews with top candidates from first round
   • Score candidates based on weighted criteria (e.g., experience, education, background, cultural fit, skill set, etc.)
   • Conduct background checks on top candidates
   • Check references of top candidates
   • Consult with HR and hiring decision makers on job offer specifics
   • Extend offer to top candidate(s)
   • Receive formal job offer acceptance and signed employment contract
   • Inform other candidates that the position has been filled
   • Set and communicate onboarding schedule to new hire(s)
   • Complete new hire paperwork (i9, benefits enrollment, tax forms, etc.)

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