A conference discusses the scams that card users face. Visa said that with the use of Generative AI and other emerging technologies, scams are more convincing than ever. — Photo Courtesy Visa Vietnam
With the use of generative AI and other emerging technologies, scams are more convincing than ever, leading to unprecedented losses for consumers, digital payments provider Visa has warned.
The company’s recent Spring 2024 Edition of its Biannual Threats Report outlines the top payment threats impacting consumers and businesses around the world, including Việt Nam.
The company affirmed that consumers are increasingly targeted by scammers, who rely on heightened emotions to create fraud opportunities. While the number of individual scam reports from June to December decreased, the total money lost increased, indicating scammers are targeting victims with more effective and costly scams.
One prevalent scam tactic known as "pig butchering" exploits occasions like Valentine's Day and New Year's Eve to target victims via social media and dating platforms, luring them into online relationships and persuading them to invest in fake cryptocurrency trading platforms. By employing AI to craft more persuasive schemes, pig butchering scams have resulted in billions of dollars in losses for consumers. Visa's research revealed that 10 per cent of surveyed adults has fallen prey to pig butchering scams.
Another common scam involves inheritance scams, where victims receive notifications about an inheritance left by a fictitious long-lost relative, often posing as a legitimate law firm or professional entity.
Furthermore, scammers capitalise on tragic events through humanitarian relief scams, exploiting social media donation calls to deceive well-meaning contributors.
Triangulation fraud is another scheme where threat actors establish fake online storefronts offering sought-after items at discounted prices to gather payment details, leading to significant losses for legitimate businesses, amounting to up to US$1 billion in a single month.
In addition to consumer vulnerabilities, threat actors frequently exploit organisations and networks, using new technologies to target complex weaknesses with broad repercussions. Fraudulent trends within organisations include concerted attacks on supply chains and third-party services to amplify the impact of each breach.
The escalating adoption of Artificial Intelligence (AI) by fraudsters enables them to identify loopholes in banks' fraud prevention measures.
Purchase Return Authorisation (PRA) fraud attacks rose by 83 per cent in the previous five-month period, with successful assaults potentially costing banks an average of $115,000 per attack.
Ransomware incidents surged by 300 per cent from June to December 2023 compared to the same period in 2022. Visa predicts that ransomware actors will persist in targeting critical infrastructure, particularly financial institutions. — VNS