Visa's 2022 Fraudulese research found a gap between consumers' confidence in recognizing scams and their responses to deceptive messages. Released on November 16, the report highlighted free-gift promises, supposed wins and urgent requests as recurring tools used by fraudsters.

The research with Wakefield covered 6,000 adults in 18 markets. Visa said 73% were likely to miss warning signs in digital communications, even though almost half considered themselves capable of recognizing scams.

A related linguistic study by the Aston Institute for Forensic Linguistics examined how fraudulent texts encouraged engagement. Visa reported that invitations to respond to an offer or apparent problem appeared in 87% of the scam messages analyzed.

The company presented the findings as a case for education about the wording and tactics of fraud. It also said it had blocked $7.2 billion in attempted fraudulent payments across 122 million transactions during the preceding year. That prevention figure was reported by Visa, separately from the consumer survey.