AI-enabled social engineering scams cause nearly $1 billion in consumer losses
Visa reported that criminals using AI-enabled social engineering tools conducted scams totaling nearly $1 billion from July to December 2025, making scams the fastest-growing consumer fraud category. The scams rely on impersonation and deception rather than technical system breaches, exploiting human trust as network-level payment security strengthens.
What happened
From July to December 2025, Visa identified nearly $1 billion in scam-related activity across its global network, making scams the single largest category of consumer payment fraud.
Criminals increasingly use artificial intelligence and social engineering to manipulate people into authorizing payments themselves, impersonating trusted brands and institutions and manufacturing urgency to deceive victims into completing legitimate-looking transactions.
Reported impact
Scams have become the fastest-growing source of consumer harm, with nearly $1 billion in scam-related activity identified in the second half of 2025.
Index analysis
As network-level payment security strengthens, criminals are redirecting efforts from technical system compromises toward exploiting human trust rather than targeting technology.
Governance controls
Visa stated that addressing this shift requires continuous innovation at the network level and close collaboration across banks, merchants, policymakers and the broader payments ecosystem.
Classification
Sources and evidence
Sources not yet published
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