Payments processor Visa has published a new studying highlighting an increasing number of sophisticated fraud schemes which are targeting the global economy.

In the latest edition of its Biannual Threats Report, the payment provider said that there has been a significant rise of phishing scams carried out through generative AI tools and marked increase in enumeration and ransomware.

While global fraud rates were lower than expected, Visa said that March 2023 saw nearly 460 ransomware attacks, which is a 91 per cent increase compared to February 2023 and 62 per cent higher than March 2022.

Visa said enumeration attacks had increased by around 40 per cent over the first six months of 2023.

The report added that there had been an increase in retail specific schemes. These included counterfeit merchants, free gift scams and flash fraud scams.

Visa also highlighted the rise of “malvertising”, where scammers place fake adverts to collect personal information. Victims are targeted with search engine-optimised scams that prey on what they might be interested in legitimately purchasing.

“While we are pleased by the lower-than-expected fraud rate over the last few months, this edition of the Biannual Threats Report continues to underscore just how savvy fraudsters continue to be,” said Paul Fabara, chief risk officer at Visa. “The same way criminals take advantage of technology advances, so does Visa, and the $30 billion of fraud prevented in the last six months alone is a great testament to that.”

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