Insights

Disrupting Fraud at Every Stage of the Kill Chain

Oct 10, 2025

Picture this: A criminal circles your neighborhood looking for weaknesses. They test the windows, check the locks and search for a key left under the mat. If they find a way in, they move deeper into the house until valuables are within reach.

Fraud works the same way. Criminals don’t storm the front door of a bank account or payment system in one bold move. They probe for vulnerabilities in stages, each step bringing them closer to success. This sequence of actions is what financial experts call the fraud kill chain. And just like protecting a home, every stage is a chance to stop them before they get inside.

From Break-ins to Brand Protection: Applying the Kill Chain to Fraud

For financial institutions, the concept of the kill chain is not new. It has long been used to describe how security threats unfold in stages and where intervention is possible. The same thinking applies to fraud in telecommunications and brand protection.

Just like a burglar testing the windows and doors of a home, fraudsters test phone numbers, impersonate brands and look for weak points in communication channels. Each stage, whether it is exploiting digital trust signals, probing accounts or attempting to move funds, is both a potential entry point and an opportunity to defend.

RealBrand™ equips financial institutions to disrupt the fraud kill chain before it impacts customers or the bottom line. RealBrand™ delivers end-to-end protection, through three integrated modules:

• Attributes to verify digital trust signals and stop fraudulent entry

• Analytics to identify suspicious patterns and coordinated activity in real time

• Actions to authenticate calls, report impersonation fraud and direct intelligence to the right teams for fast response

Together, these modules safeguard not only financial assets but also brand trust by closing off the communication channels fraudsters depend on.

Ready to see how RealBrand can help your institution break the fraud kill chain? Connect with our team to explore how we can strengthen your defenses and protect your customers.

Want something to share internally? Download our one-pager for a quick overview of how RealBrand works across the kill chain.