How does Visa identify illegal transactions?

Our robust compliance requirements and sophisticated detection capabilities, including cutting-edge AI solutions, work together to identify illegal activity. We implement multiple controls across the ecosystem including: Establishing standards to ensure acquirers have the appropriate controls for high-risk categories Enabling continuous monitoring to ensure compliance with rules/law Acting on intelligence from law enforcement and NGOs to identify criminal infrastructure and disrupt it

What action does Visa take against merchants selling illegal goods or services?

Visa and our acquiring partners have a shared goal of protecting our customers and communities from those attempting to conduct illegal activity on the Visa network. When acquirers want to serve merchants in high-risk areas, we engage with them to confirm that they have the ability to oversee merchant compliance. We also closely monitor acquirers who operate in high-risk categories to ensure their controls are effective. We constantly work together with our clients to protect the Visa network. When we detect potentially illegal activity, we act swiftly through the acquirer, who maintains a direct relationship with the merchant in question to investigate the activity. If a merchant is engaged in illegal commerce and unable to comply with Visa’s rules and applicable law, their acquirer removes them from our network.

Does Visa act on tips about illegal activity?

Yes, we investigate reports of potential illegal activity on the Visa network. If a report concerns illegal merchant activity, we work with the merchant’s acquirer to investigate and take appropriate remediation measures, including terminating the merchant if the merchant is unable to comply with the law and Visa’s rules. We also support law enforcement investigations into criminal activity.

Why does Visa process transactions for businesses with high risk for illegal activity?

We do not discriminate against legal commerce. If a transaction is legal, our policy is to process the transaction. Visa does not moderate content sold by merchants, nor do we have visibility into the specific goods or services sold with each transaction. So when a legally operating merchant faces elevated risk of illegal activity, we require enhanced safeguards for acquirers supporting merchants in these categories.

Combatting illegal activity

Visa processes over 800 million transactions around the world every day, constantly defending against those who seek to take advantage of our network to conduct unlawful activity. Learn more about what we do to combat illegal activity on the Visa network and protect the people, businesses and communities we have the privilege of serving.

What we stand for

A network for everyone

Our network provides a safe and secure platform for people and businesses conducting legal commerce around the world.

Rigorous compliance

Illegal activity on our network is not tolerated. We have robust compliance programs with extensive controls to ensure participants on our network are operating in compliance with the law. This includes the Visa Integrity Risk Program which helps prevent, identify and remove illegal activity across the ecosystem.

Upholding the law

Visa does not discriminate against legal transactions. Some merchants, such as adult content or gambling sites that operate legally, face an elevated risk of illegal activity, and we require enhanced safeguards for acquirers supporting merchants in these industries.

How we combat illegal activity on our network

Criminals can employ sophisticated tactics. All participants in the payments ecosystem have a role to play in detecting and rooting out illegal activity. We continuously invest in our multifaceted approach and enhance our tools to keep unlawful activity off our network. We are always working to ensure our network is not used to facilitate illegal activities.

Prevent

Before a merchant can accept Visa payments, their acquirer (the financial institution that has the direct relationship with the merchant) must conduct compliance checks to meet our standards. Some industries such as adult content or gambling are legal but carry higher risk for illegal activity. Merchants in such categories go through an enhanced registration process and are subject to closer performance monitoring to ensure proper safeguards are in place against criminal activity.

Identify

We have extensive monitoring tools and partnerships, best-in-class technology and AI solutions to track patterns, detect anomalous behavior and leverage hundreds of risk indicators. These help us to identify potentially unlawful activity for further investigation.

Remove

When we identify or are alerted to potentially illegal activity, we take action. We partner with independent industry experts and acquirers to conduct thorough investigations, working with the acquirers responsible for the merchant(s) in question to pursue appropriate action. Acquirers terminate Visa acceptance for merchants that can’t comply with applicable law, and Visa coordinates with law enforcement as needed.

Our results

We continue investing and innovating to expand our safeguards against illegal activity, especially through our efforts to harness the immense power of AI. For example, these tools are helping us detect merchants who fraudulently conceal the true nature of their businesses to avoid our compliance requirements. Using our AI tools and machine learning models, we have seen a 5x increase in acquirer remediation and terminations for merchant noncompliance between 2020 and 2024.¹

Visa in action

Combatting illegal adult content

What happened: Visa works closely with law enforcement agencies around the world to help identify illegal activity. As part of our ongoing engagement with law enforcement in the Asia Pacific region, the Visa team received intelligence about merchant activity related to prohibited, nonconsensual adult content.

What we did: Visa immediately reviewed the law enforcement intelligence and determined this merchant was in violation of the Visa Integrity Risk Program and Visa Rules. Visa identified the acquirers working with the merchant and based on the law enforcement information, required the acquirers to work closely with the merchant to promptly bring them into compliance with the law, the Visa Integrity Risk Program and Visa Rules, or discontinue processing Visa payments. We also shared information about the case with law enforcement agencies in Asia Pacific, Europe and the United States to support their criminal investigations.

Our work continues: This is only one example of our tireless pursuit to keep illegal activity off our network. Our work continues through the Visa Integrity Risk Program, our partners and evaluation of reports we receive from external groups – including law enforcement, advocacy groups, IP rights holders and others.

Our rules are clear

Visa prohibits the use of the Visa network to purchase content depicting nonconsensual sexual behavior and child sexual abuse material. These rules also apply to computer-generated content.

Acquirer Compliance and Oversight

Financial institutions that connect adult-content merchants to the Visa network— known as acquirers—play a critical role in helping uphold these protections. Through the Visa Integrity Risk Program, Visa requires acquirers to ensure their merchants maintain appropriate safeguards to comply with applicable law and Visa’s requirements, including:

Age and consent verification. Merchants must maintain procedures and records sufficient to verify that every person depicted in their content is of legal age and has consented to participate.
A clear process for reporting concerns. Merchants must provide a complaint process for individuals to report potentially illegal content and resolve complaints within five business days. Illegal content must be removed immediately.
Compliance with the law. Merchants must comply with the applicable laws and regulations in both the buyer’s and seller’s jurisdictions, as well as Visa Rules.If a merchant is unable or unwilling to comply, the acquirer must notify Visa immediately and terminate that merchant's ability to accept Visa payments.

Acquirer Accountability

Acquirers that support adult-content merchants must register with Visa and regularly confirm that their merchants are meeting these requirements. If an acquirer fails to adequately oversee its merchants, it may be subject to noncompliance assessments and other measures, including suspension of its ability to participate in the Visa Integrity Risk Program.

Partnering with experts

We have longstanding partnerships with law enforcement and NGOs around the world to support our efforts against illegal activity.

Working together to uplift everyone

With our clients and partners, we continue to work diligently to protect our customers and communities in an ever-changing landscape and ensure our network remains a positive force allowing people to grow and thrive around the world every day.

Explore common questions about what we do

: Our robust compliance requirements and sophisticated detection capabilities, including cutting-edge AI solutions, work together to identify illegal activity. We implement multiple controls across the ecosystem including:

Establishing standards to ensure acquirers have the appropriate controls for high-risk categories

Enabling continuous monitoring to ensure compliance with rules/law

Acting on intelligence from law enforcement and NGOs to identify criminal infrastructure and disrupt it
: Visa and our acquiring partners have a shared goal of protecting our customers and communities from those attempting to conduct illegal activity on the Visa network. When acquirers want to serve merchants in high-risk areas, we engage with them to confirm that they have the ability to oversee merchant compliance. We also closely monitor acquirers who operate in high-risk categories to ensure their controls are effective. We constantly work together with our clients to protect the Visa network.

When we detect potentially illegal activity, we act swiftly through the acquirer, who maintains a direct relationship with the merchant in question to investigate the activity. If a merchant is engaged in illegal commerce and unable to comply with Visa’s rules and applicable law, their acquirer removes them from our network.
: Yes, we investigate reports of potential illegal activity on the Visa network. If a report concerns illegal merchant activity, we work with the merchant’s acquirer to investigate and take appropriate remediation measures, including terminating the merchant if the merchant is unable to comply with the law and Visa’s rules. We also support law enforcement investigations into criminal activity.
: We do not discriminate against legal commerce. If a transaction is legal, our policy is to process the transaction. Visa does not moderate content sold by merchants, nor do we have visibility into the specific goods or services sold with each transaction. So when a legally operating merchant faces elevated risk of illegal activity, we require enhanced safeguards for acquirers supporting merchants in these categories.

More you might like to know

¹ Source: Visa Integrity Risk Program team statistics