Visa’s State of Scams: Fall 2024 Biannual Threats Report examines physical theft, impersonation and authentication bypass affecting consumers, merchants and financial institutions. Released on October 23, 2024, it includes criminals using stolen payment credentials to buy gift cards or other goods for resale.
Visa's Chief Risk and Client Services Officer, Paul Fabara, stated that despite the company's $11 billion investment in technology and infrastructure over the past five years, fraudsters are reverting to tried-and-true tactics that target the weakest link in the ecosystem: consumers. The report notes that after a theft, scammers often purchase gift cards or physical goods to resell, or use the card number online for money transfers.
Other themes include government impersonation and attempts to bypass authentication through convincing texts, emails or calls. The report also examines enumeration and token-provisioning fraud. Its fuel-dispenser findings distinguish frequency from value: alerts fell 19% against the prior reporting period while assessed fraudulent value rose 373%. A general claim that every measure of gas-station fraud increased would therefore be misleading. [S02]
The report’s government-impersonation discussion cites a separate US agency dataset. The FTC recorded USD40 million in reported cash losses in 2022 and USD76 million in 2023. These figures concern cash paid to impersonators, not gift-card losses or transactions on Visa’s network. They illustrate the report’s wider point that criminals can change the payment method they demand. [S03]
Cash losses reported to the FTC in government-impersonation scams
United States; annual consumer-reported losses, 2022 and 2023.
USD million in reported cash losses
Tap or hover for details. All values are also available in the data table.
Source
Cash-only losses reported by consumers, not gift-card losses, all fraud incidents or a population estimate. These are annual totals, not the first-quarter 2024 figure or an average loss per victim.
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| Category | Reported cash losses |
|---|---|
| 2022 | 40 USD million in reported cash losses |
| 2023 | 76 USD million in reported cash losses |
The report marks the first edition published under the newly expanded Payment Fraud Disruption team, which works to protect the Global Payment Ecosystem against threats and abuse. The full report can be found on Visa's website, and the company encourages consumers, merchants, and financial institutions to stay vigilant and take steps to prevent fraud.
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Oliver Reed
Oliver Reed covers industry acquisitions, investment and market research for Gift Card News.