Payment security gains push fraudsters to exploit social engineering; Visa urges banks and merchants to adopt AI defences

Visa, a global leader in digital payments, has reported a significant spike in scam-related payment fraud targeting Nigerian and international consumers, with losses nearing $1 billion (about ₦1.5 trillion) between July and December 2025. The development was disclosed in Visa’s mid-year 2026 Biannual Threats Report, released on Monday.

According to the report, while network-level security measures for digital payments have become more robust across Nigeria and other regions, criminals are increasingly shifting tactics—relying on artificial intelligence (AI) tools and sophisticated social engineering scams to deceive individuals into authorising payments themselves. This marks a move away from hacking technical systems towards exploiting human trust.

Visa revealed that fraud involving device tokens dropped by 9.6% compared to the previous year, demonstrating the effectiveness of stronger authentication methods. However, scams have now overtaken all other forms of payment fraud, with criminals impersonating reputable brands or institutions to trick victims into making legitimate-seeming transactions under false pretences.

Paul Fabara, Chief Risk and Client Services Officer at Visa, said in a written statement: “Payments at a network level continue to get safer, but threats are evolving faster than ever. Criminals are increasingly targeting people rather than technology, using deception, urgency and AI-enabled tools to exploit trust. Addressing this shift requires continuous innovation at the network level and close collaboration across banks, merchants, policymakers and the broader payments ecosystem.”

The report also notes that global ransomware attacks rose by 26% within the same period, though only 23% of victims paid ransoms—a record low—suggesting improved resilience by institutions and less willingness to pay when data may still be leaked regardless of payment.

Andrew Uaboi, Vice President and Cluster Head for Visa West Africa, commented: “The rapid adoption of AI has fundamentally lowered the barrier to entry for fraud. What once required deep technical skill can now be executed with a prompt. That reality makes intelligence-driven defences and coordinated action across the ecosystem more critical than ever.”

Visa advised Nigerian banks, fintech firms and merchants to invest in both AI-powered detection systems and ongoing consumer education to stay ahead of these evolving threats. The company emphasised that early intelligence-sharing between stakeholders is key to reducing losses before scams reach end-users.

The full mid-year 2026 Biannual Threats Report is available through Visa’s official website.

Source: https://www.pulse.ng/story/visa-threats-report-as-network-security-strengthens-attacks-shift-to-ai-enabled-social-engineering-2026062409201025906