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 through an email invitation and online survey on September 7–14, 2022. Its report says 73% typically responded to terms or phrases commonly used by scammers, while 48% were confident they could recognize a scam. These are reported attitudes and responses, rather than a measured failure rate in an actual fraud test.
The survey also asked how people checked a message. Checking an email domain and checking spelling were separate reported practices; respondents could use both, and neither percentage measures successful fraud prevention.
Reported message-authenticity checks in September 2022
Share of respondents across the 18 surveyed markets reporting each checking practice.
percent
Tap or hover for details. All values are also available in the data table.
Source
Visa-commissioned Wakefield online survey of 6,000 adults, September 7–14, 2022. Self-reported, potentially overlapping practices. Market weights, subgroup bases and full questionnaire are not published in the four-page report.
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| Category | percent |
|---|---|
| Valid sender email domain | 60 percent |
| Correct spelling | 47 percent |
A separate April 2022 linguistic study by the Aston Institute for Forensic Linguistics examined 155 fraudulent messages containing 5,891 words. Invitations to respond to an offer or apparent problem appeared in 87% of that exploratory corpus. The researchers did not compare it with a genuine-message control corpus, so the result does not measure fraud prevalence.
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.
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Emma Carter
Emma Carter covers retail, e-commerce and the gift card shopping experience for Gift Card News.