Anyone who has spent years in compliance will recognise the symptoms. Unusual transactions, oddly phrased emails, businesses that never seem to have customers and unsolicited calls requesting personal details all start to look suspicious.
That heightened sense of risk can protect people, but according to RegTech firm Alessa, it can also produce some memorable stories, and occasionally cost someone money.
Alessa recently gathered anecdotes from compliance professionals whose instincts have spilled over into everyday life, beginning with one from its own team. An Alessa employee overheard her mother sharing personal information over the phone and stepped in with a single question: “Did you call them, or did they call you?”
“They called me,” her mother replied. The employee urged her to hang up immediately. By the book, the instinct was sound, as the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) warns that unexpected callers seeking sensitive data are a common feature of phone scams. However, the caller was a legitimate insurer, and her mother was buying additional life insurance. The beneficiary of that policy would have been the employee herself.
After sharing the story online, Alessa heard from many others in the field. One described explaining their job by asking, “Have you seen Ozark? We try to catch people like Jason Bateman.” It is arguably the most efficient summary of anti-money laundering (AML) work available.
Others recalled receiving a 1am “unusual activity” alert, only to discover a relative had used the wrong card to buy their birthday present. One professional admitted making an unofficial site visit to a local bakery that had always seemed slightly off, noting that steady revenue with no visible customers is a textbook warning sign for cash-intensive businesses.
Another team was so well trained in spotting phishing that staff flagged their own security training email because it contained a spelling mistake, a classic indicator highlighted by the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA).
Some stories went further. One parent, unable to reach their daughter for 30 minutes after her shift, contacted police and raised the possibility of human trafficking. Another confessed that, in younger years, they had added memos such as “for the body disposal” or “mob payment” to e-Transfers sent to friends.
With a better understanding of transaction monitoring, they now wonder how many high-risk keyword alerts they triggered and how many analysts cleared them as false positives.
The broader point is serious. Compliance work trains people to question what others overlook, which strengthens fraud detection, yet it can be difficult to switch off. Alessa has now launched a series titled “You Know You Work in Compliance When…” to celebrate these relatable moments and is inviting professionals to share their own.
Read the full Alessa post here.
Copyright © 2026 RegTech Analyst
Copyright © 2026 RegTech Analyst
