Toekomst van het Betalingsverkeer: combating fraud in a digital world

The scale of the challenge

With the Netherlands at the forefront of payment innovation, particularly in instant payments, the country has developed a mature payments infrastructure. However, this same innovation has also opened doors for increasingly sophisticated fraud schemes, making it essential to stay one step ahead.

The scale of the challenge is daunting. According to the latest GASA State of Scams Report (2024), the Netherlands alone lost an estimated €1.75 billion to scams last year, while other European countries faced equally severe losses. Denmark reported €3 billion in losses, France nearly €6 billion, and Germany, Austria, and Switzerland combined saw in 2023 an estimated €12 billion disappear into fraudulent schemes. These figures represent far more than financial losses – they reflect thousands of individuals who have endured both financial and emotional distress, with many victims experiencing deep psychological impacts.

E-commerce and the three faces of fraud

What makes modern fraud particularly alarming is its speed. João illustrated this with a striking case: a Dutch citizen lost €10,000 in under an hour to a scammer impersonating a bank employee. This rapid execution is not unusual – research shows that one in three scams in the Netherlands is completed within minutes. In such a landscape, where fraud can unfold faster than a victim or financial institution can react, prevention and rapid detection are more critical than ever.

At Worldline, billions of transactions are monitored across multiple payment networks, revealing a clear trend: fraudsters are continuously adapting their tactics each specific market they operate. Shopping scams are one of the most prevalent forms of fraud, e-commerce accounts for 94% of confirmed fraudulent cases. These scams have evolved beyond crude fake websites; today, fraudsters create professional-looking platforms with competitive pricing and authentic-seeming customer reviews, making them nearly indistinguishable from legitimate businesses.

Beyond e-commerce, João outlined three major categories of fraud that are gaining traction:

1. The patient predator: Romance scams, fraudulent investment opportunities (both crypto and non-crypto), and employment scams often involve months, or even years, of meticulous grooming. By gradually building trust, fraudsters manipulate victims into making financial decisions that result in devastating losses, often exceeding on average €1,000 per victim. To counteract this, Worldline has developed tools that allow banks to detect when users are being coached into making payments over the phone, enabling early alert and intervention.
2. The multi-channel attack: No longer confined to a single communication channel, scammers now execute coordinated campaigns across emails, WhatsApp messages, fake bank calls, and social media advertisements. Research indicates that emails remain one of the most frequently used weapons, appearing in over 70% of cases. However, the effectiveness of scams is amplified when fraudsters use multiple platforms in tandem – WhatsApp messages create urgency, fake bank calls add credibility, and social media ads establish trust.
3. The race against time: The rise of instant payments has made fraud harder to prevent. While real-time transactions offer convenience, they also mean that once money is transferred, it is often irretrievable. Cross-border transfers further complicate recovery efforts, and Generative AI enables fast, personalized, high-quality content that makes scams more convincing than ever before.

This increasing sophistication in fraud tactics is compounded by an unsettling trend: the silence epidemic. Alarmingly, 77% of fraud victims had to discover the fraud themselves, while 82% never reported it to law enforcement. This lack of reporting creates a fragmented defense system, allowing fraudsters to operate with minimal resistance.

Regulatory responses: finding the right balance

Given the scale of these challenges, different regions are exploring various regulatory approaches to mitigate fraud. The UK, once considered a global hotspot for scams, took a bold step by implementing mandatory reimbursement for scam victims, with liability shared 50/50 between sending and receiving banks, and a reimbursement cap of £85,000. While this model offers consumer protection, it also raises concerns about banks bearing the financial burden for fraud that originates on external platforms they cannot control.

In contrast, Singapore has adopted a shared responsibility framework, where accountability is distributed across banks, telecommunications providers, and tech platforms. By clearly defining the roles of each sector, Singapore has created a collective defence against fraud, fostering a more resilient financial ecosystem.

Europe, meanwhile, is taking a balanced approach with the upcoming PSD3 and PSR regulations. These initiatives are expected to extend liability beyond banks to include tech platforms and telecommunications providers, encourage the sharing of fraud data among institutions, and emphasises fraud prevention and public education. The overarching message is clear: if a company plays a role in the digital economy – whether by moving money, hosting content, or connecting people – it has a responsibility to help combat fraud.

The need for a united defence

João underscored the need for a united defence strategy, emphasising that fraud does not target isolated entities but rather entire ecosystems. If one bank is attacked today, the fraudster will likely attempt the same scheme at multiple banks using identical techniques, yet many institutions continue to tackle fraud independently. In an era of instant payments, waiting hours or days to share fraud intelligence is no longer an option. Real-time data sharing has become a necessity, recognizing this need, Worldline is actively working on a fraud data-sharing community to support its clients in this endeavour.

Layers of protection: a multi-tiered approach

To illustrate how collective security can work in practice, João drew an analogy to a medieval concentric castle, which relies not on a single barrier but on multiple layers of defence. In the digital world, the same principle applies:

·         Prevention (outer layer): Real-time customer education, behavioural biometrics, and AI-powered transaction monitoring.

·         Detection (middle layer): Machine learning models, cross-channel fraud monitoring, and collaborative intelligence-sharing initiatives.

·         Response (inner layer): Instant intervention capabilities, continuous feedback loops, and rapid fraud alerts across industries.

The hard but necessary first step

Closing his talk, João left the audience with a powerful message: with nearly €2 billion lost to scams last year and fraudsters becoming more sophisticated by the day, financial institutions, regulators, and tech companies can either continue fighting fraud individually or unite to build something far more powerful. The technology exists, and the regulatory framework is emerging – now, the challenge lies in taking the first step toward a truly integrated fraud prevention ecosystem.

By working together, industry players can create a defence network that is greater than the sum of its parts, making digital payments safer for everyone.

Download the presentation "Decoding Payment Fraud Trends - Emerging Challenges" by João Courinha, Product Manager Fraud Management & Issuing Processing and learn more about our Fraud Management solutions.