Red Flags in Agent Payments
The payment-path red flags every compliance team looks for.
The list
- New counterparty with a first-time large payment
- Payment routed through a mixer or high-risk service
- Retry storms on a blocked payment
- Counterparty jurisdiction in an embargoed-adjacent geography
- Payments split to stay under thresholds
- Fresh wallet with no history receiving agent funds
Why agents amplify these
An agent executes hundreds of payments with no human pause. The red flags that a human would notice are invisible unless the controls check for them.
The control
Screen every payment (binary), score every payment (continuous: amount, rail, category), and stop on the flags above. The audit log is the evidence.