Visa Introduces GenAI Tool to Curb Fraudulent Transactions

Global digital payments leader Visa has announced an upgrade to its Visa Account Attack Intelligence (VAAI) offering by adding the VAAI Score, a new tool that uses generative AI components to identify and score enumeration attacks.

The VAAI Score, which will be available to U.S. issuers first, will help reduce fraud and  operational losses by assigning each transaction with a risk score in real time to detect and prevent enumeration attacks in card-not-present (CNP) transactions.

The VAAI Score model has undergone extensive training on over 15 billion VisaNet transactions. This new model boasts six times the features of its predecessors, enhancing its ability to detect suspicious enumeration transactions effectively.

“Enumeration can have lasting impacts on our clients, and there’s an immediate need for tools that can better detect and prevent these attacks in real-time,” says Paul Fabara, Chief Risk and Client Services Officer at Visa. “With the VAAI Score, our clients now have access to real-time risk scoring that can help detect the likelihood of an enumeration attack, so issuers can make more informed decisions on when to block a transaction.”

VAAI Score can help issuers with:

• Reduced fraud and operational losses

• Improved cardholder experience

• Real-time transaction scoring

Visa's strategy involves utilizing noisy data to train this real-time AI model, ensuring high accuracy. It scrutinizes each CNP transaction against enumeration patterns, and the updated risk scoring model generates a two-digit risk score. This score then aids in predicting the probability of enumeration, enabling more informed decisions on whether to approve or decline transactions.

Based on reports, 33% of enumerated accounts experienced fraud within five days of a fraudster obtaining access to their payment information. By leveraging GenAI, the Score model learns normal and abnormal transaction patterns and identifies the likelihood of complex enumeration attacks in real-time.

This helps reduce fraud without compromising the integrity of Visa’s performance and accuracy. The tool has been able to reduce the false-positive rate by 85% compared to other risk models.

“With access to advanced technology, fraudsters are monetizing stolen credentials faster than ever before,” says Michael Jabbara, SVP Global Head of Fraud Services at Visa. “Enumerated transactions impact the entire ecosystem, and with the VAAI Score, we’re giving our clients a sophisticated tool that can help prevent cardholder accounts from being compromised and stop fraudulent transactions before they happen.”

In FY23, Visa proactively blocked $40 billion in fraud, saving many from experiencing fraudulent transactions beyond their knowledge. Over the last five years, the company has invested over $10 billion in technology, focusing on fraud reduction and network security.