The 24/7 war room

IN THE heart of Data Center Alley - a patch of suburban Washington where much of the world’s internet traffic flows — Visa operates its global fraud command centre.

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The numbers that the payments giant grapples with are enormous. Every year, $15 trillion flows through Visa’s networks, representing roughly 15% of the world’s economy. And bad actors constantly try to syphon off some of that money.

Modern fraudsters vary dramatically in sophistication.

To stay ahead, Visa has invested $12 billion over the past five years building Al-powered cyber fraud detection capabilities, knowing that criminals are also spending big.

“You have everybody from a single individual threat actor looking to make a quick buck all the way to really corporatised criminal organisations that generate tens or hundreds of millions of dollars annually from fraud and scam activities,” Michael Jabbara, Visa’s global head of fraud solutions, said during a tour of the company’s security campus.

“These organisations are very structured in how they operate.”

The best-resourced criminal syndicates now focus on scams that directly target consumers, enticing them into purchases or transactions by manipulating their emotions.