Threats to the payment ecosystem in 2023 chiefly comprised of financial scams, with threat actors increasingly adopting AI technologies to stay at the top of their games, according to a VISA report.

The top scams identified by the US-based payment card services operator included pig butchering, inheritance scams, humanitarian relief scams, and triangulation frauds.

“The latest biannual threat report reveals an alarming increase in financial scams, both in scope and breadth, with criminals making significant profits globally,” said Michael Jabbara, SVP, global head of fraud services at Visa. “There is an increased need to remain vigilant, especially on social media and email platforms, which are the primary channels for these scams. The imperative to implement best practices that mitigate, prevent, and disrupt these threats and protect the consumers and business globally has never been stronger.”

The report, which is based on threat data within the seven months of June 2023 to December 2023, also revealed that threat actors are likely to continue adopting and adapting innovative technologies like GenAI to exploit system vulnerabilities at enterprise entities and individual cardholder data for fraudulent financial gain, Jabbara added.

Pig butchering on a steep rise

One of the leading scams in 2023 was Pig Butchering, a confidence trick or investment fraud of manipulating victims towards making heavy cryptocurrency-based contributions to a seemingly sound investment scheme. Visa observed threat actors evolving the “romance scams” during holiday times into crypto-based pig butchering lures.

“In a pig butchering scam, threat actors use social media, dating websites, and various apps to lure victims into online relationships and subsequently convince victims to invest in specified cryptocurrency trading platforms,” said Jabbara. “Such scams tend to occur during holidays when people are feeling especially lonely and are experiencing heightened anxiety around being single – such as Valentine’s Day and New Year’s – and bad actors exploit vulnerable individuals in that heightened state of mind.”