ASHBURN — 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.

The numbers that the payments giant grapples with are enormous. Every year, US$15 trillion flows through Visa’s networks, representing roughly 15 per cent 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 US$12 billion over the past five years building AI-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 corporatized criminal organizations that generate tens or hundreds of millions of dollars annually from fraud and scam activities,” Michael Jabbara, Visa’s global head of fraud solutions, told AFP 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.

“Consumers are continuously vulnerable. They can be exploited, and that’s where we’ve seen a much higher incidence of attacks recently,” Jabbara said.