Payment safety in an era of artificial intelligence and global fraud

In a world where digital currents intertwine everyday life, payments are becoming a key topic of modern society.

We live at a time when a financial transaction is made with a simple click or touch, with a sense of security for the user being taken for granted. But under the surface of digital comfort, an invisible battle takes place between security systems developers and criminal networks that pervade every defect, vulnerability and exploit any weakness – user or system. The safety of digital payments is no longer just a technical challenge, as it represents a core of confidence in a modern society or a digital economy.

In recent years, we have witnessed exponential growth of digital payments, which brings many advantages, but at the same time opens the door to new methods of fraud. Reuters reported that Visa alone prevented 80 million fraudulent transactions totaling $ 40 billion in 2023, indicating the exceptional scope and seriousness of financially oriented cyber threats in the digital space. Experts estimate that in recent years, payment deceptions have caused an average of about $ 500 billion. Something is clear: the more the digital world is expanding, the greater its vulnerability.

The modern payment ecosystem is no longer limited to four traditional actors (cardholder, merchant, publisher, acquirer), but also includes new platforms, brokers, payment transitions, providers of installed financial services, as well as various loan service providers and postponed payments and their business models. However, any new member or article in this chain represents an additional place of possible intrusion or abuse.

Technology duel: Criminals against artificial intelligence

Financially motivated criminals are no longer individuals with counterfeit cards today, but well -organized groups using artificial intelligence, documentary, audio and video, search engines on the dark web, and even automatically created malicious codes for deception and theft of money. Numerous tools, tricks and performance of artificial intelligence available to us already have their own variants in the dark part of the web – from artificial intelligence markets to find and buy specialized skills in the field of fraud and place, talk robots with artificial intelligence, configured specifically for financial cyber crime, mechanisms for creating harmful software, biometric. Preparation of fakes, including cloning of voice, image and video.

One of the most worrying cases of fraud that awaits us in the future is the case of the British engineering company Arup, which in Hong Kong became a victim of $ 20 million « heavy » fraud, realized by a video created by artificial intelligence, where the employee thought he was performing a video call with the CEO.

Everyone in the chain is responsible for the safety of payment systems. By far, the most of it is made by paying network owners like Visa. “Visa does not sit cross in this battle. Over the past five years, the company has invested more than ten billion dollars in the security of the payment ecosystem, with a large proportion of the amount aimed at developing advanced real -time fraud detection systems, « she said Alenka Mejac Krassnig, Director Visa Slovenia. These systems, which help with a wide variety of artificial intelligence technologies, analyze user patterns, geolocation, time anomalies and even the user’s typing or touch the screen when logging in to detect it before it happens. According to UK Finance, the use of generative artificial intelligence has increased the detection rate by as much as 30 percent in detection detection in some cases.

The banks’ responsibility is also increasing, especially if they are « involved » in the case of harm at the expense of the new directive. Investigation pymnts.com He notes that 77 percent of users are expecting their banks to use artificial intelligence to detect fraud. Trust is no longer just a result of security, but a expected service. “Advanced artificial intelligence allows us not only to respond faster to deception, but also their prediction. But without the involvement of the entire ecosystem, they cannot fully come to life, « says the interviewee.

Security directed to the user

In the survey, as many as 60 percent of customers said they would replace the seller if their priority was not available. This emphasizes the importance that companies offer many different payment methods that are easily involved in the customer’s path. However, the offer is only half of the success. The experience should be simple, safe and intuitive, especially since consumers continue to spend more and more time online. As more and more daily activities – from banking to shopping – moves to the digital area, consumers expect the payment experience to suit the simplicity and speed of other digital interactions. Payments should no longer be a separate process, but easily part of the entire shopping experience.

With the transition to a more fluid payment ecosystem, security has become key – especially in the eyes of payment service users. Artificial intelligence and emerging large language models change the rules of the game in the developed payment ecosystem, so providers also use these tools to increase their capacity to detect and prevent fraud. The promising evolutionary security technologies are definitely considered tokenization, with unique tokens ensuring transaction certification and, if intercepted, are useless for the attacker.

With technological advances, the border between physical and digital experience will continue to be wiped. Shopping and paying will be increasingly integrated, and the old differences between the real and virtual world will become irrelevant. Solutions for Biometric Validation of Payments such as Click to Pay, They are just the beginning of a broader shift to more flawless, safe and flexible digital pay.

The future of payments: invisible protection, visible trust

This year and coming years, it will certainly be characterized by finding a balance between security and user experience. Visa bets on solutions that provide security at the network level, not just at the level of individual institutions. Biometric data, tokenization and analysis of user behavior and users will also play an important role.

In a world where each transaction has become information and every information potential target, cyber security is a pillar of trust. It is not just about protecting money or property – it is about protecting relations between businesses and people.