Global payments company Visa prevented upwards of 80 million fraudulent transactions last year, worth $40bn, thanks to its cybersecurity defences, including artificial intelligence (AI).
A senior figure at Visa confirmed the results to Reuters during a payment security conference in Johannesburg, South Africa, yesterday.
Charles Lobo, Regional Risk Officer, Central and Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa also outlined that next year, cybercrime is set to cause financial services and the rest of the world an even greater headache, projected to cost up to $10.5trn.
He said: “In just the last year, those investments, how have they benefited us? We’ve blocked $40 billion of fraudulent transactions. That’s 80 million transactions prevented. Now despite that, there’s still a lot of bad that’s happening.”
The large number of transactions prevented by Visa in 2023 is indicative of the evolving fraud landscape over the past several years.
Most recently, UK fintech Revolut reportedly denied thousands of UK customers’ request for reimbursement after being victims of fraud attacks, a 35% increase in fraud complaints from the year prior.
Major financial services and entities are also preparing for a new wave of AI-related fraud that is projected to explode over the coming years. As AI is becoming more sophisticated, so are its abilities to enact fraud attacks by scammers, such as via deepfakes.
Signicat issued a warning to the financial sector in an in-depth report regarding AI-related fraud, stating that companies are unprepared for this threat in terms of implementing the right technology and talent.
On the other hand, Visa, just like many other global financial companies, is accelerating its investment and adoption in AI to combat the very same technology.