Overview
At Community Financial System, Inc. (CFSI), we are dedicated to providing our customers with friendly, personalized, high-quality financial services and products. Our retail division, Community Bank, N.A., operates more than 200 customer facilities across Upstate New York, Northeastern Pennsylvania, Vermont and Western Massachusetts. Beyond retail banking, we also offer commercial banking, wealth management, investment management, insurance and risk management, and benefit plan administration.
Just as our employees are committed to helping our customers manage their finances, we’re committed to our employees. After all, they make it happen for our customers every day.
To ensure our people can enjoy long and successful careers here at CFSI, we offer competitive compensation, great benefits, and professional development and advancement opportunities. As an equal-opportunity workplace and affirmative-action employer, we celebrate and support a diverse workplace for the benefit of all: our employees, customers and communities.
Responsibilities
The Fraud Investigator is responsible for conducting complex fraud investigations involving suspicious account activity, transactional anomalies, payment-related fraud events, customer fraud claims, scam-related losses, account takeover activity, check fraud, digital banking abuse, and other elevated fraud matters. This role serves as an experienced individual contributor within the Bank’s fraud investigations function and is responsible for developing investigative findings, assessing fraud exposure, identifying broader patterns of risk, and recommending actions to mitigate loss and protect the Bank and its customers. The Fraud Investigator is expected to operate with a high degree of independence and sound judgment in the review and resolution of complex fraud matters. This position is designed as an advanced professional role within the fraud investigations career path and serves as a developmental step toward leadership and broader operational oversight within the investigations function.
Essential Duties:
- Conduct complex fraud investigations involving suspicious activity, payment anomalies, customer fraud events, scam-related losses, account takeover, check fraud, ACH and wire concerns, card-related activity, digital banking misuse, and other elevated fraud matters.
- Analyze account histories, transactional activity, payment flows, channel behavior, relationship linkages, case chronology, customer interactions, and system records to determine fraud exposure, root cause, and appropriate action.
- Develop clear investigative findings, case narratives, timelines, and recommendations related to account actions, loss mitigation, recovery efforts, restrictions, closures, monitoring, and escalation.
- Identify patterns of suspicious behavior, repeat victimization, organized activity, operational vulnerabilities, and emerging fraud typologies that may require broader review or control enhancement.
- Apply sound risk-based judgment in determining case severity, next steps, escalation thresholds, and investigative outcomes while balancing customer impact and operational practicality.
- Work across internal fraud systems, core banking platforms, transaction monitoring tools, case management systems, research tools, and related bank technologies to conduct investigations and document findings.
- Maintain a working understanding of how banking transactions move through operational systems, including payment processing flows, file transmission processes, exception handling, posting environments, and related fraud points of exposure.
- Operate with a working understanding of applicable laws, regulations, legal processes, and internal policy requirements relevant to fraud investigations, account action, payments, customer claims, records, and case documentation.
- Partner with Operations, Deposit Operations, Branch Administration, Customer Care, Digital Banking, Information Security, Physical Security, Compliance, BSA/AML, Legal, and other stakeholders to support effective case resolution and coordinated fraud response.
- Support management reporting, trend identification, procedural improvement, and investigative quality by identifying recurring issues, control gaps, and operational opportunities that arise through casework.
Ancillary Duties:
As an integral member of the Fraud Operations Department, this position is also responsible to provide assistance wherever necessary to help the Security Department and the Bank in achieving their annual goals.
Qualifications
Education/Training:
- Bachelor’s degree in Criminal Justice, Business, Finance, Accounting, Risk Management, or a related field preferred; equivalent professional experience may be considered.
- 5–7 years of progressive experience in fraud operations, fraud investigations, financial crimes, payment risk, Deposit Operations, or related work within a financial institution.
- Demonstrated experience investigating elevated fraud matters, employee fraud, suspicious activity, payment-related risk, or customer-impacting fraud events.
Skills:
- Strong investigative and analytical skills, with the ability to independently assess complex account, customer, and transaction activity and develop clear, well-supported case findings.
- Strong understanding of fraud typologies affecting deposit, payment, card, digital banking, and account access channels within a financial institution.
- Strong knowledge of fraud systems, case management platforms, monitoring tools, core banking systems, and research tools used to investigate suspicious activity and support case development.
- Working knowledge of banking operations, including transaction processing, payment routing, file transmission, exception handling, and account servicing workflows relevant to investigative casework.
- Ability to apply sound risk-based judgment in evaluating suspicious activity, customer impact, fraud exposure, and operational risk to support effective case resolution.
- Strong understanding of fraud investigations, payment risk, and escalation practices within a regulated banking environment.
- Working understanding of applicable laws, regulations, procedures, and legal processes relevant to fraud investigations, records handling, payment disputes, and case outcomes.
- Strong written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to document investigative findings thoroughly and communicate effectively with internal stakeholders.
- Strong judgment, professionalism, confidentiality, and ability to handle sensitive matters with discretion.
- Ability to identify suspicious patterns, root causes, and investigative findings that support effective case resolution and fraud risk reduction.
Experience:
- Advanced fraud, investigations, payments, or banking operations training preferred.
- Relevant certifications such as CFE, CAMS, CFCS, APRP, or similar credentials are preferred.
- Experience working across fraud systems, core banking platforms, transaction monitoring tools, case management systems, and related bank technologies preferred.
- Experience with deposit and payment fraud, digital banking risk, scam typologies, and investigative documentation strongly preferred.
Other Job Information
Compensation: Commensurate with experience plus potential for annual merit increase. In addition to your competitive salary, you will be rewarded benefits including: 11 paid holidays, paid vacation, Medical, Vision & Dental insurance, 401K with generous match, Pension, Tuition Reimbursement, Banking discounts and the list goes on!
Physical Requirements:
The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions. While performing the duties of this job, the employee may be required to stand, walk or sit. Use hands and fingers, handle or feel, reach with hands or arms, and speak and hear. The employee may occasionally be required to lift and or move up to 25 pounds. Specific vision abilities required by this job include close vision, and the ability to focus.
The Company is an Affirmative Action, Equal Opportunity Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy, sexual orientation and gender identity), national origin, citizenship status, age, disability, genetic information, veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by applicable federal, state or local law.
The Company will make reasonable accommodations for qualified individuals with a disability. If you have a physical or mental impairment and would like to request an accommodation with respect to the application process, please contact the Human Resources Department.
Minimum
USD $62,400.00/Yr.
Maximum
USD $88,000.00/Yr.
