Available for freelance & contract work

Timo Tolonen

Trust & Safety · Integrity Operations · Support Automation

I protect platforms and their users — fraud, identity, moderation, and the operations behind them. Built for scale, run lean.

Get in touch View experience
1M+fraud signals processed annually
>97%of fraud detection automated
55k+fraudulent actors removed & blocked
0major findings across ISO & client audits in 4 years
>96%CSAT with sub-5-hour resolution times
About

Trust & safety that scales without scaling headcount

15+ years leading trust & safety, fraud, support, and community operations — at Welo Data, YouGov, giffgaff, Jagex, and Electronic Arts.

My specialism: protecting large crowds — customers, players, panellists, AI trainers — and the platforms they use. Fraud & identity infrastructure, moderation and duty-of-care frameworks, and LLM/RPA automation that keeps detection above 97% automated. Near-double annual workload growth, same headcount, satisfaction above 96%.

Comfortable setting strategy at board level and building the workflows hands-on. The detail is in the experience below.

Services

How I can help

Freelance and contract — audits, advisory, hands-on builds, interim leadership.

Fraud & Integrity Operations

Fraud-signal detection and removal systems, KYC/ID verification, sanctions screening, brand protection, and adversarial red-team exercises — 1M+ signals a year, >97% automated.

Online Safety Act Readiness

Moderation frameworks, duty-of-care and escalation procedures, sensitive-content policy, and audit preparation for platforms in scope of UK online-safety regulation.

Support Operations & Automation

End-to-end Zendesk builds, LLM and RPA workflow automation, KPI/SLA design. Double the volume, same team.

Community Strategy & Operations

Peer-support models, ambassador programmes, gamification, ideation platforms, and events — from strategy to daily operations.

Experience

Where I've done it

2022 – 2026

Head of Community — Trust & Safety, Support & Platform Operations

Welocalize / Welo Data — London

Built and led the team of 25+ covering trust & safety, support & onboarding, community, and platform operations for a global crowd of thousands of AI trainers and raters serving Tier 1 tech clients including Google, Microsoft, and Amazon.

  • Co-created NIMO, Welo Data's fraud & identity infrastructure: automated fraud-signal detection and removal, KYC/ID and Tax ID verification, and brand protection — 1M+ signals processed annually, >97% of detection automated, 55k+ fraudulent actors removed, 90% of fraud stopped before production
  • Commissioned external red-team and penetration exercises (no critical vulnerabilities found); supported a Digital Trust & Safety Partnership audit; passed multiple ISO and client audits with no major findings
  • Created the safety framework for serious escalations — legal threats, real-world harm, suicide risk — plus sensitive-content policy and sanctions monitoring; automated GDPR erasure handling with DPO and legal counsel
  • Integrated LLMs and RPA into recruitment, ticket routing, and reporting — reclaiming 1,000+ hours of productivity per month; doubled onboarding volumes twice at >96% CSAT and sub-5-hour resolution
2018 – 2022

Director of User Retention & Experience

YouGov — London

Owned the experience and retention of YouGov's market differentiator: a global research panel grown to 8M members across 38 countries during my tenure (11M+ today).

  • Designed fraud-detection surveys and drove the first-30-day removal KPI to keep fraudulent and automated panellists out of the panel
  • Lifecycle campaigns that cumulatively re-activated 3M lapsed panellists
  • Built a support centre of excellence covering 19 languages, handling tens of thousands of contacts monthly
  • Rolled out global NPS and effort-score programmes; partnered with Product on a unified global app rebuild
2012 – 2018

Head of Community

giffgaff — London

Grew the volunteer-member community of the UK's "run by you" mobile network into a fully peer-run model, leading a team of 16.

  • 100% of first-contact front-line support handled by volunteer members
  • Created labs.giffgaff.com (community ideation into the product roadmap) and experts.giffgaff.com (P2P e-learning)
  • Designed the super-user programme: tiered gamification, rewards, and recognition; reported community results to the C-suite
  • Ran live events from CMX London 2015 to a 24-hour charity gaming livestream
2011 – 2012

Community Manager

Jagex (RuneScape) — Cambridge

Primary owner of community, support, and safety for the North American player base of RuneScape — 250M+ registered players. Handled serious trust & safety escalations directly with UK and foreign police, and safeguarded a player base including children and teenagers.

Until 2011

Certification Project Manager

Electronic Arts — UK & Spain

Led 1st party (Microsoft, Sony, Nintendo) certification and compliance for AAA franchises including FIFA, The Sims, Harry Potter, Mass Effect, and Battlefield — the final stamp of quality before release.

Tools & Platforms

Technology I work with

Safety & Fraud

ID verification / KYC vendorsFraud-signal analysisRed teamingSanctions screeningBrand protectionModeration tooling

Community

Khoros / LithiumDiscordRedditFacebookX / TwitterBrandwatchHootsuiteCustom forums

Support & CRM

Zendesk (end-to-end)Custom CRMsWorkdayMailchimpSurveyMonkey

AI & Automation

ClaudeChatGPTGeminiCopilotPowerAutomateRPA / UiPath

Ops, PM & Analytics

JiraConfluencePowerBIDatadogSQLNPS / CSAT toolingAsana
Contact

Let's talk

A fraud-detection build, an Online Safety Act readiness review, a support-automation audit, or interim T&S leadership — tell me what you need.

Emailtimo@timotolonen.com LinkedInlinkedin.com/in/ttolonen

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