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Visa Inc. announced it dealt a significant setback to fraudsters hoping to cash in on Cyber Monday, the busiest online-shopping day of the year, by stopping about 85% more suspect transactions than it did a year earlier.
The increase in fraud prevention is significant, as suspect transactions rose 200% globally during the Thanksgiving through Cyber Monday shopping period, Visa says. The increase was largely due to criminals’ adoption of artificial intelligence to perpetrate fraud, the card network adds.
Using AI, criminals can create more realistic fake identities, manipulate images, and generate convincing content to carry out fraud. Visa says it has invested $11 billion over the past five years to combat fraud.
Fraud-prevention tools Visa has introduced in recent years include the Visa Account Attack Intelligence Score (VAAI), which debuted in May. The score uses generative AI to identify and rank the severity of enumeration attacks. These are brute-force attacks criminals use to determine whether certain data exist within a database. Visa initially rolled out the VAAI Score in the United States.
In announcing its fraud-detection rate on Cyber Monday, Visa touted its use of AI as evidence it is staying a step ahead of criminals using AI. The card network adds it “proactively blocked $40 billion of suspected fraudulent transactions” in 2023.
In its 2024 Holiday Threats Report released last month, Visa listed the top five scams used by fraudsters—phishing and social-engineering attacks, merchant scams, holiday-travel scams, malicious holiday apps, and theft of physical cards.
In other Visa news, Card.com, a provider of mobile banking and prepaid Visa cards, has added Visa Direct Cross Border Payments to its financial-services offerings.
The move will enable Card.com users to move money internationally more efficiently and securely, the parties say. Card.com users will be able to initiate real-time, card-based payments in more than 180 countries and territories and account transfers in more than 90 countries. The service will also enable funds transfers between mobile wallets in more than 50 countries.
“This collaboration allows us to expand our financial services on a global scale, offering fast, convenient, and secure international payment options to meet the needs of our growing user base,” Card.com chief executive Paul Neustaedter, says in a statement.
