How Visa Fights Financial Crime with its Anti-Scam Unit

Visa has established a dedicated scam disruption practice that aims to identify and interrupt sophisticated financial crimes as they emerge.

The unit, which sits within Visa Payment Ecosystem Risk and Control (PERC), provides an additional layer of security beyond traditional fraud prevention systems. 

In its first year of operation, the department prevented £335m (US$433m) in attempted fraud across various scam operations, complementing the £39bn (US$50bn) in attempted fraud PERC blocked across Visa's broader network during the same period.

Paul Fabara, Chief Risk and Client Services Officer at Visa, explains the strategy behind the unit: “Visa has invested over £11bn (US$14.2bn) in technology over the last five years, including to reduce fraud and enhance network security. 

“At the same time, we have made a significant investment in our best weapon against scammers: our people. 

“By combining our proprietary technology with the unique experiences and perspective our talent brings, we can more effectively identify and defeat even the savviest scammers.”

The hybrid approach to fraud prevention

The Visa Scam Disruption (VSD) unit represents an evolution in financial crime prevention by combining technological capabilities with human expertise from diverse professional backgrounds.

What distinguishes this approach from conventional fraud management is the recruitment of specialists beyond the traditional technology sector. 

The unit includes former law enforcement officers, military professionals and data visualisation experts working alongside engineers and artificial intelligence developers.

This cross-disciplinary team enables Visa to analyse payment patterns from multiple perspectives, identifying anomalies that might not trigger standard fraud detection systems. 

The unit employs proactive investigation processes that utilise various information channels to identify scams before they cause significant financial losses.

Technology and methodology

At the core of VSD's capabilities is the analysis of Visa's extensive network-level data. 

The unit employs generative AI tools to perform correlation and graphing analysis—techniques that identify relationships between seemingly unrelated transactions across multiple merchant accounts.

These tools process large volumes of transaction data to differentiate between legitimate activity and coordinated fraud patterns. 

Unlike traditional fraud detection which often focuses on individual suspicious transactions, VSD's approach can uncover entire scam networks operating across multiple countries and platforms.

Natalie Kelly, Chief Risk Officer at Visa Europe, highlights the evolving nature of the challenge: “As payments have evolved over the decades, so has the nature of fraud. 

“Scammers are leveraging advanced tools and technology, including AI, to organise and execute attacks at pace – but we remain several steps ahead in order to protect consumers here in Europe and around the world.”

Dismantling scam infrastructures

The unit's work extends beyond merely blocking fraudulent transactions. Once VSD identifies a scam network, it collaborates with financial institutions, law enforcement agencies and third-party partners to dismantle the infrastructure behind the operation.

This approach was demonstrated when the European VSD team uncovered a sophisticated scam targeting UK and European cardholders through social media advertisements for fake products. 

The network used over 450 different URLs and merchant IDs to collect nearly 3 million card details, which were subsequently used for additional fraudulent transactions.

The operation resulted in losses of £125m (US$161m), but VSD's intervention blocked fraud attempts on approximately 75% of the compromised cards, preventing an additional £413m (US$521m) in potential losses. 

Ultimately, the entire scam network was dismantled through coordinated action with partners.

The human element in digital fraud prevention

Despite the technological sophistication of modern fraud prevention, VSD recognises that understanding the human impacts and motivations remains essential to effective protection.

Michael Jabbara, Senior Vice President and Global Head of PERC at Visa, emphasises this perspective: “Fraud usually has no face, but a scam is personal. These scams directly impact the lives of victims, sometimes with devastating effects. 

“Visa also collaborates with intelligence partners, law enforcement, and industry working groups to ensure that not only do we shut these scammers down, but the other members of the ecosystem are also equipped to spot red flags on their own.”

The rise of authorised push payment (APP) fraud—where victims are manipulated into authorising payments to fraudsters—presents a particular challenge for payment processors and financial institutions. 

Unlike traditional card fraud, these scams exploit human psychology rather than technical vulnerabilities, making the multi-disciplinary approach of units like VSD increasingly valuable.

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