Her Story
About Abria
Abria Mccants is a professional specializing in incident management, fraud prevention, AML investigations, financial crimes compliance, and risk analysis. With experience dating back to 2015, she began her career working for the district attorney in Columbia, South Carolina, prosecuting those writing fraudulent checks, which sparked her interest in the investigative side of fraud and money laundering. She holds a bachelor's degree in criminal justice with a concentration in courts, a paralegal certification, and a master's in business administration. Her career has included work as an expungement clerk assisting juveniles, substitute teaching fourth grade history and science in her hometown, investigations into PPP loan fraud with the SBA in 2022, fraud operations including account takeovers and imposter accounts, as well as KYC and KYB processes. She has also worked in transaction monitoring and suspicious activity reviews, achieving a 98 percent accuracy rate on case filings in one project and identifying exposure of approximately 3 million dollars in illegal funds. Abria attributes her success to the women who came before her as a Black American woman and values integrity, respect, and honesty in both her professional and personal life.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Abria
01What do you attribute your success to?
I attribute my success to the women who came before me, who dreamed of being in my position as a Black American woman. Each generation has paved the way further and further to give me the torch so that I can just run as fast as I can and as much as I can go before I hand it off to the next generation. So to me I feel like it's bigger than me doing what I do in general because it allows more doors and more opportunities to be opened for women that look like me and women who are me as well.
02What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?
The best career advice I've ever received is that there are no ceilings. Life is however far you want to take it. So if it's a no you're asking the wrong person. Anything you want in this life you can obtain. If you can think it you already have it. It just depends on how far you're willing to go for it.
03What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
The advice I would give to a young woman in this industry is you deserve to be there. You deserve to be in any room. Don't have imposter anything because you deserve to be there you're in that room for a reason and shine.
04What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
The biggest challenge is because my industry is male-dominated so it is sometimes that visibility. You can easily be overlooked but have that reassurance for yourself. You have to give yourself reassurance and you have to be the only person to validate you. And also learning how to have your own voice and speak up. Sometimes they may want to speak over you but you have to learn how to be a little assertive to be able to get your voice across because your voice matters as well.
05What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
My values are integrity respect and honesty. Those to me are values that will get you with the right people if it's personally or professionally.
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