## IV. **The Problem with the Current System: Good People Get Flagged, Bad People Slip Through**

Fraud detection today is built on the illusion of objectivity.

Rules-based scoring models. Behavioral red flags. Actuarial profiles. Checkbox logic. These systems are meant to catch deception — but what they often catch is *difference*.

Trauma survivors stumble over timelines. They forget things. They cry at the wrong moments. They freeze up. They contradict themselves not because they’re lying, but because they’re *wounded*.

Meanwhile, manipulators — particularly narcissistic personalities — often present as calm, collected, helpful. They *rehearse* their stories. They mirror what the system wants to hear. And they pass.

The result?

The honest get flagged.

The practiced glide through.

This isn’t a system problem. It’s an empathy problem. Or more precisely — a *lack* of forensic empathy. We need tools that understand human variation, trauma responses, and narrative complexity. Not just automation. Not just algorithms.

What we need is a new kind of listening. A new kind of forensic.

One that honors the truth without punishing the vulnerable.

> *Bad actors aren’t just gaming the system — they’re weaponizing it.*