Payment fraud surges 25% as criminals exploit shared infrastructure

Payment fraud has risen by around 25% according to new data from Fraudio. The company’s analysis of transactions between 2024 and 2026 reveals a clear upward trend in fraudulent activity across its dataset. Fraudio’s findings show a shift in how fraud is carried out. More than 90% of observed fraud events were tied to shared infrastructure, such as IPs linked to many cards. This suggests increasingly coordinated attacks spanning cards, merchants, geographies, and payment flows.

Transactions routed through submerchants carried a higher fraud risk than those processed directly by merchants. Even when 3DS authentication succeeded, some fraud still occurred. Additionally, Fraudio noted a rise in its false-positive proxy, indicating that stricter fraud controls may be wrongly flagging legitimate customers. The data highlights a growing reliance on network-level signals, like IPs connected to numerous cards, as key fraud indicators. The overall increase in fraud rates points to evolving tactics by fraudsters, with submerchant routes remaining a particular vulnerability.