Terry KS Visa’s Fall 2025 Biannual Threats Report highlights five major forces accelerating the evolution of global payment fraud, driven by industrial-scale criminal operations and advanced AI tools. The findings underscore the urgent need for collaborative, intelligence-led defense to protect the global payments ecosystem.
MALAYSIA, 25 NOVEMBER 2025 – In conjunction with International Fraud Awareness Week, Visa (NYSE: V) has released its Fall 2025 Biannual Threats Report, unveiling five transformative forces that are reshaping fraud across the global payments ecosystem. Compiled by Visa’s Payment Ecosystem Risk and Control (PERC) team, the report leverages intelligence from Visa’s worldwide network to analyze how criminal operations are rapidly evolving in scale, sophistication, and coordination.
“The payments ecosystem is experiencing a paradigm shift in how fraud operates,” said Paul Fabara, Chief Risk and Client Services Officer at Visa. “Criminals are no longer working as opportunistic individuals—they’re operating like tech startups, deploying reusable infrastructure and systematic, industrial-scale operations that challenge conventional defenses.”
The report highlights five core forces driving this evolution:
- The Industrialization of Fraud:
Cybercriminal activity has shifted from isolated attacks to coordinated, enterprise-level operations. Criminals now deploy reusable infrastructure such as botnets, synthetic identities, templated scams, and AI-powered tools that can carry out multiple types of attacks simultaneously. - The Monetization Playbook:
Fraudsters increasingly use dual-speed strategies—moving slowly to accumulate stolen credentials while acting quickly to maximize financial gain once vulnerabilities are identified. - The Authenticity Crisis:
Advances in impersonation tactics, synthetic content, and AI-generated communications are making it harder than ever to authenticate legitimate transactions and user interactions. - Control Erosion:
Criminals are systematically testing and bypassing established security controls, exploiting gaps in legacy systems and pushing institutions to adopt more adaptive defenses. - Third-Party Vulnerability Gap:
As the payments ecosystem becomes more interconnected, third-party service providers have emerged as high-risk targets. Visa PERC recorded a 41 percent rise in ransomware incidents affecting ecosystem entities from January to June 2025, along with a 173 percent surge in CAMS account distribution compared to 2024.
Visa’s PERC team further expanded on the risks posed by AI and agentic commerce in a supplementary blog, emphasizing that evolving technologies create both opportunity and exposure. “The reality is that everyone with access to the internet can be a fraudster,” said Michael Jabbara, SVP of Visa Payment Ecosystem Risk and Control. “Being educated in these trends is one of the best ways to protect yourself.”
Visa continues to collaborate with global partners to combat emerging fraud threats through advanced analytics, intelligence sharing, and coordinated defense strategies. The company has invested more than USD 13 billion over the past five years in technology and infrastructure—including security innovations—to strengthen ecosystem-wide protection.