Visa Expands Scam Disruption as Fraud Shifts from SMS Scams to Phishing and Online Payment Attacks in the Philippines

Visa announced new measures to strengthen scam disruption in the Philippines, following its recent Risk Forum where it engaged media and industry partners on emerging fraud trends and best practices to secure the country’s digital payments ecosystem. As scams shift from traditional SMS schemes to phishing, online card fraud (CNP), and account takeovers, Visa says it is sharpening its focus on protecting Filipino consumers.

As digital payments grow in the Philippines, scammers are moving from simple SMS lures to more complex methods targeting online credentials, ecommerce transactions, and real-time payments. Visa’s Biannual Threats Report noted a 41% increase in ransomware incidents affecting the payments ecosystem in the first half of 2025, reflecting a more unpredictable threat environment. In Asia Pacific, the region accounted for 67% of global scam losses in 2023, while the Philippines recorded a 13.4% suspected digital fraud rate, higher than the global average.

Visa Scam Disruption: stopping scams before money moves
Globally, Visa has disrupted more than US$1 billion in attempted scams through its Visa Scam Disruption (VSD) practice. Working with clients and law enforcement agencies worldwide, VSD has also dismantled more than 25,000 scam-linked merchants, strengthening payment security.

Operating under Visa’s Payment Ecosystem Risk and Control group, VSD is a proactive antiscam capability that combines intelligence, investigation, detection models, and partnerships. It forms part of Visa’s US$13billion investment over the last five years to advance fraud prevention and network security.

“Protecting Filipinos from fraud is at the center of our work, and this means going beyond detection. We are strengthening scam disruption across the ecosystem — from issuing banks and acquirers to fintechs and regulators — so we can stop scams earlier and protect consumers before money moves. We’re investing in stronger authentication, expanding tokenization, deploying AI-powered anomaly detection, and sharing intelligence in real time with our partners. As scams increasingly target online payments, Visa’s role is not just to react, but to help raise the security bar for the entire industry so Filipinos can pay and be paid with confidence,” said Jeffrey Navarro, Visa Country Manager for the Philippines.

Visa continues to support banks in the Philippines with tokenization, biometric authentication, device‑bound passkeys, and AI‑powered anomaly detection — helping protect consumers as digital payments expand.

In 2024, Republic Act 12010, or the Anti-Financial Account Scamming Act (AFASA), was signed into law, strengthening the country’s response against fraud and scams. Under the law, banks are mandated to employ real-time fraud detection while phasing out one-time passwords (OTPs) for high-risk transactions. The law also enables institutional partners like Visa to share intelligence instantly with the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), enhancing reporting mechanisms for faster, more responsive industry-wide controls against fraud.