Three consecutive quarters of decline put Vietnam above regional safety standards
Vietnam’s card fraud rate is on a steady and steady downward trajectory, with three consecutive quarters of significant improvement, pushing the market above the average safety threshold of the Southeast Asia region. According to a newly updated report by Visa Vietnam, by the end of the second quarter of 2025, Vietnam has recorded positive developments in credit card issuance, with the fraud rate “declining sharply in the last three quarters and lower than the average of the Southeast Asia region”.
This result reflects the coordinated efforts of issuers to put into operation advanced anti-fraud technology, real-time monitoring and data-based risk identification models. Visa noted that 93% of fraud arising at the card issuance side comes from online transactions, mainly cross-border transactions, with the biggest cause still coming from the exposure of users' card information.
In terms of payment acceptance (acquirer), Vietnam is also showing a positive position, doing significantly better than many Asian countries. However, Visa warns that Vietnam is still in the group of "1 of the 3 countries with the highest fraud growth rate, after the Philippines and Indonesia".
In addition to recording the results, Visa also provided a comprehensive picture of the prominent threats in 2025, in which the trend of "industrialization of fraud" is the most prominent. Fraud is no longer small-scale but operated as a "technology enterprise" with botnets (software robots), fake identities, standardized fraud scripts and specialized AI tools. Visa said that the level of discussion about AI Agents on underground forums increased by 477%, reflecting the acceleration of criminals automating fraud operations and exploiting data.
Vietnam recorded a sharp decrease in card fraud rate for three consecutive quarters. Illustrative photo
The report also noted several large-scale data sales in the first half of 2025, aimed at attracting traffic and building a “brand” in the underground market. In that context, Visa launched the Visa Scam Disruption program, a model that uses AI combined with global intelligence to monitor underground forums and disrupt fraud networks before they can attack widely.
Another dangerous trend is that criminals are splitting their speed and monetizing their “two-phase” strategy, storing stolen data for a long time to avoid detection, then exploding it very quickly to bypass controls. Visa said that 85-93% of the compromised accounts were related to attacks in the past 12 months, with many fraudulent transactions occurring just seconds after making a transfer through instant payment channels such as e-wallets or cryptocurrencies.
Visa stressed that in a fraud environment that can “hibernate,” defenses need to operate in two layers, monitoring the dark web slowly to detect leaks and responding quickly with real-time authentication and AI models to detect anomalies. This is the foundation for ensuring the safety of the payment ecosystem in a context where the speed of crime is always ahead.
Visa also warns of a time when “everything can be spoofed with AI,” from websites, business profiles to automated conversations. Many fraudsters create legitimate-sounding businesses, professional websites, and well-organized processes to bypass initial compliance checks. AI agents can adapt in real time, building trust through personalized conversations that go beyond traditional phishing emails. This makes manual checks no longer enough to filter, especially when Visa has recorded an explosion of sophisticated fraud models in 2025.
Visa said it has invested more than $12 billion in AI and machine learning over the past five years to build models to detect transaction anomalies globally, an effort to protect the ecosystem from high-tech threats, especially as criminals increasingly use AI to bypass old defenses.
Strengthening the secure payment ecosystem
Visa believes that traditional fraud prevention measures are becoming less effective, as criminals increasingly use distributed tactics, low-speed card testing, and drip attacks to avoid detection. Fraudulent merchants may have high transaction decline rates but still bypass basic compliance steps by using legitimate industry codes. This has led to a “technology arms race” in which the financial system risks falling behind if it does not evolve faster than criminals.
To respond, Visa adopted a proactive defense model, moving from static controls to analyzing anomalous behavior across the network and deploying tools like Visa Account Attack Intelligence. Security programs and standards were also expanded to cover the entire ecosystem, not just the financial institution but also the card accepting units and service providers.
One of the key trends is the shift in the source of data breaches, with breaches occurring more frequently at the financial institution’s service partners, card acceptors or transaction processors, rather than primarily at the bank. Visa recorded a 41% increase in ransomware incidents in the payments ecosystem from January to June 2025, with several major outbreaks in February this year.
This shift creates a “trust paradox” because users trust banks, but data is exposed to third parties. Therefore, Visa increases merchant oversight, applies a third-party risk management framework, and checks PCI DSS compliance to minimize the risk of data leakage.
Ms. Dang Tuyet Dung, Director of Visa Vietnam and Laos, said that Visa is promoting expansion solutions, especially in the risk management of card payment acceptance units, a major bottleneck in the market recently. Notably, Visa completed the acquisition of Featurespace in December 2024, making this company a part of the Visa Protect solution suite to strengthen global fraud prevention capabilities.
Featurespace is known to be a business founded in 2008, present in the UK, US, Singapore and Australia, capable of processing more than 100 billion transactions per year and protecting more than 1 billion users in the past 18 months. The company owns an Adaptive Behavioral Analytics platform combined with Machine Learning that allows real-time transaction monitoring, detecting abnormalities while still ensuring a seamless user experience. Above all, the system can provide an “all-in-one” risk management solution for many types of transactions, from cards, accounts to anti-money laundering and identifying forms of fraud such as investment, sentiment or fake businesses.
This combination shows that Vietnam is entering a phase of strengthening its payment ecosystem with proactive defense technology, adapting to the reality of sophisticated and accelerating fraud. The sharp decline in fraud rates for three consecutive quarters is not only a positive sign, but also affirms that the direction of investment in technology and security is showing effectiveness.
In the context of strong growth in digital payments, maintaining a continuous improvement pace, keeping abreast of new fraud trends and applying advanced behavioral analytics models will be key to keeping Vietnam in a position to exceed regional safety standards, an important foundation to promote market confidence and the sustainability of digital payments in the long term.
Dr. Nguyen Quoc Hung, Vice President and General Secretary of the Vietnam Banking Association, highly appreciated the updates on the payment security landscape in Vietnam and the region; the latest threats in 2025 and the discussions on Visa's new initiatives and solutions in the field of payment and risk management. He expected Visa to coordinate more closely with the association and work directly with each bank to develop practical support solutions for payment security in Vietnam.
Source: https://congthuong.vn/viet-nam-giam-sau-gian-lan-the-vuot-chuan-an-toan-khu-vuc-432672.html
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