Visa has unveiled its latest Security Roadmap for New Zealand, setting out a bold three-year plan to tackle the dramatic rise in AI-driven scams and digital fraud that has plagued the country’s payments ecosystem. As criminals increasingly turn to artificial intelligence to mimic consumer behaviour and bypass traditional security checks, Visa’s new approach aims to protect consumers and businesses by fighting AI with AI.
Fraud and scam losses have soared across New Zealand, with scam and card fraud losses totalling NZ$194m in 2024 alone. Unauthorised card fraud jumped by 32% over the past year, and online shopping scams have now overtaken identity theft as the most frequently reported scam type. Worryingly, despite these figures, 68% of New Zealanders who fall victim to scams choose not to report the incident, often due to uncertainty about where and how to do so.
Visa’s new roadmap identifies key areas where financial institutions and banks should focus investment over the next three years. These include steps to modernise authentication methods, strengthen resilience against AI-powered scams, prevent enumeration attacks, adopt data-driven risk management, and secure digital payments with advanced security protocols.
Visa New Zealand and Pacific Islands country manager Anthony Watson said, “Visa used AI to stop more than NZ$273 million in fraud affecting New Zealanders in 2023 alone. And yet, as AI-enabled fraudsters evolve, we must move faster. That requires relentless innovation and continued investment in next-gen security tools and partnering across the ecosystem to stay ahead of criminals.”
A key part of the new plan is supporting small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs), which are becoming increasingly frequent targets for scammers. To help owners protect themselves and their customers, Visa has launched its SMB Fraud Prevention Toolkit. This resource provides practical fraud prevention tips, checklists, case studies and training guides covering phishing, ransomware, billing scams, card-not-present fraud and enumeration attacks.
The initiative is vital as scam reports rose by 95% in 2023 alone, with New Zealand businesses losing NZ$1.9m to scams. Watson said, “SMBs are the engine of New Zealand’s economy and, increasingly, cyber criminals exploit the most vulnerable point in the payments’ ecosystem: humans. This toolkit gives business owners in New Zealand, commonly a target for cybercrime, the knowledge and confidence to take control of their security.”
Visa’s roadmap also underscores the role of sustainable funding, such as interchange, in maintaining the vital infrastructure behind secure payments. Watson added, “Fraud prevention doesn’t just happen – it’s powered by sustained investment in technology. If we want to stay ahead of scammers, we need to ensure the ecosystem remains commercially viable for innovation to thrive. In markets where interchange fees have been significantly reduced, we’ve observed increased friction and higher fraud rates, leading to poorer customer experiences.”
Visa remains committed to working closely with its partners – banks, acquirers, merchants and government agencies – to roll out its Security Roadmap and keep New Zealand’s digital economy safe from an increasingly sophisticated wave of scams.
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