As Visa's Chief Risk and Client Services Officer, I witness the almost-daily evolution of the payment threat landscape, and I’m proud to lead Visa’s continued fight against fraudsters.
Today, I get to share a milestone that reflects our unwavering commitment to consumer protection: the Visa Scam Disruption practice has identified more than $1 billion in fraud attempts since its inception just a year ago. As a result, we’ve worked closely with our clients and law enforcement to dismantle more than 25,000 scam merchants.
And we’re not stopping there
Alongside this milestone, we’ve strengthened one of our core ecosystem protection programs — the Visa Integrity Risk Program — to further support our client banks in their detection of deceptive merchant practices. Combatting scams requires collaboration across the entire ecosystem and a 360-degree approach that places equal, if not greater, emphasis on prevention as on mitigation.
The threat landscape
Every day, scammers are more sophisticated and scalable due to the proliferation of AI. Visa Scam Disruption is staying ahead by using AI for good — coupled with deep human expertise — to identify complex, malicious scams and stop them before they impact potential victims.
Here are two recent examples of particularly nefarious scams faced by consumers that we work with our partners and law enforcement to stop:
Travel scams: Visa has seen an uptick of fraudsters creating convincing imitations of airline and travel agency websites. Then, using a combination of smishing, phishing and malvertising, bad actors sent flight or hotel “cancellation notices” and harvested payment details and personal information on the fake sites.
The new business scam: In this scam targeting would-be new small business owners, scammers promised comprehensive business services for relatively modest fees, then either pressured victims into opening new credit accounts or used stolen personal information to open accounts themselves before disappearing entirely.
Looking ahead
Scams are personal, and one misstep can have detrimental financial impact on individuals and families. Identifying more than $1 billion in fraud attempts is significant, but it’s just the beginning. Our team wakes up every day thinking about the people being targeted — the ones looking for love, booking a once-in-a-lifetime vacation or finally starting a new business.
Visa will continue to make investments in technology, our bench of experts and our global network that allow us to identify scams early — regardless of where they originate or who they are targeting — and work closely with our partners and clients to take swift action to stop them.