Embracing AI while Keeping an Eye Out for Fraud 

By Brandon Spear, CEO of global payments platform TreviPay

There’s plenty of reason to be optimistic about AI’s potential to transform business, but we need to be smart and stay vigilant when it comes to the increased opportunities for fraud, notes Brandon Spear

There is huge optimism about artificial intelligence (AI) in terms of supercharging growth. Shadowing these benefits is the accelerating threat of fraud as AI gives criminals new tools to scale and disguise their activity. 

Businesses today face scams that are more complex, audacious, and global than ever before. And these schemes evolve daily. Research indicates that 41% of fraud attacks are powered by AI, costing businesses millions of dollars, yet most businesses recover less than 10% of what is lost to fraud. 

Meanwhile, a low general awareness of AI-boosted cyberattacks, combined with businesses underestimating the threat, exposes everyone to dangerous attacks. Recent US data reported a 25% jump in reported consumer fraud losses for 2024, up to $12.5 billion, with trade-based financial crime accounting for nearly a third of global fraud cost estimates, or a considerable $1.6 trillion a year.

The rise of the deepfake

Producing false, yet highly realistic, invoices, purchase orders, or payment instructions that appear to be genuine business communications is now simple for malicious actors. More disturbingly, they can use deepfake voices and videos of senior executives to trick investors out of millions. There were more than 105,000 deepfake-related attacks reported in the U.S. last year—one every five minutes, according to The Wall Street Journal.

AI-enabled fraud is considered a legitimate career path. The Wall Street Journal reported how companies are competing for employees with AI skills—and hackers are, too. The article highlights the discovery of advertisements posted on a Darknet forum, looking for English-speaking hackers to help infiltrate and extort businesses.

Relentless attacks call for nimble defenses

In reality, old-style fraud tactics, in common with routine office tasks which demand manual effort and technical ability, are becoming automated and much simpler to execute at scale. Great for streamlining office work, but unfortunately also great for hacking, phishing and other forms of attack that can be outsourced to 24/7 systems that keep going until they find a vulnerability.

Be in no doubt here that the genie is out of the bottle and we need to act. The question is how? Ultimately, your central ERP will require some assistance because these platforms were configured before Dark Web ads were even an idea, which is why real-time monitoring and analysis are critical components of fraud prevention. 

In addition, senior executives and engineers need tools that can analyze transaction data, flag anomalies, and report suspicious activity for immediate review. Traditional methods for combating threats, such as malware and viruses, may no longer be sufficient in the face of the AI-driven tsunami. Retailers and e-commerce platforms must therefore adopt a broader approach—one that not only detects but actively prevents suspicious activity the moment it occurs.

Poacher turned gamekeeper?

Specialists providing AI-enabled fraud mitigation solutions bring the experience and skillset to help here. Whether it’s real-time threat detection, ID verification, or risk assessment, continuous monitoring can ensure you identify threats and fraudulent behaviour before they cause financial loss. 

There is some good news that comes from this. We can “set a thief to catch a thief,” using the enormous potential of AI to power the essential countermeasures. This explains why B2B payment leaders today are leveraging AI to verify the authenticity of invoices, purchase orders, and payment instructions before they are processed. By crunching huge volumes of data instantaneously, AI can spot odd behaviour, highlight anomalies and stop fraud before it enters the system, keeping payments secure and trusted.

From healthcare, finance to education, AI holds enormous potential for businesses, consumers, and society in general. But it can also be misused, which is why I believe we must use its power to protect us from the threat of fraud. 

Brandon leads TreviPay with expertise in managing large, diverse global teams. His strength is focusing on the most important challenges facing an organization and unifying all stakeholders behind accomplishing a set of specific goals. Brandon has a distinct ability to connect across all levels of an organization, motivate staff with diverse skill sets and ensure common alignment that gets results. Brandon received a Bachelor’s and Master’s in Engineering from the University of Witwatersrand in South Africa.