50 Credit Card Fraud Statistics for 2026

Credit card fraud continues to cost small businesses thousands of dollars per case in the U.S., and threats are growing in sophistication and volume.

To illustrate the current state of the landscape, we’ve brought together 50 key credit card fraud statistics from trusted sources including INTERPOL, Mastercard, Visa, Nilson Report, Experian, and the Bank Policy Institute (BPI).

Key takeaways:

• Credit card fraud is continuing to cost businesses tens of billions of dollars worldwide every year.
• Most credit card users in the U.S. have experienced fraud, with just over half doing so multiple times.
• Card-Not-Present (CNP) and phishing attacks remain the biggest card fraud threats, exacerbated by growing AI usage and a broadening digital attack surface.
• Consumers are warier than ever about the data they share and purchases they make online, but many are unaware of the protections available to them.

How Common Is Credit Card Fraud?

While statistics show global fraud losses are falling year-over-year, businesses still lose billions of dollars annually. In the U.S., credit card fraud remains the most common type of identity theft. What’s more, it impacts most credit card users nationwide.

Global and U.S. Fraud Volume

• It’s estimated that global fraud losses reached $442 billion in 2025. (INTERPOL)
• Fraud losses in the U.S. amounted to more than $15.9 billion in 2025. (CNBC)
• The FTC notes that the number of fraud complaints reported in 2025 reached more than three million. (FTC)

Card Fraud as a Share of Overall Payment Fraud

• Global payment card fraud losses reached $33.41 billion in 2024, based on a volume of $51.92 trillion. (Nilson Report)
• This figure fell 1.2% from credit card fraud losses the year before. (Nilson Report)
• Credit card fraud is the most common type of identity theft in the U.S.. The FTC received almost 598,000 reports of credit card fraud in 2025.  (FTC, via Experian)
• An estimated 61 million credit card holders in the U.S. have experienced some kind of fraud. (Security.org)
• In the same survey, 51% of holders reported having experienced fraud multiple times. (Security.org)

How Fraudsters Target Merchants and Cardholders

The most common credit card fraud methods include CNP fraud (where stolen details are used and a physical card is not required) and phishing (where scammers pretend to be trustworthy entities to access data).

To help combat common vectors such as CNP attacks, many merchants rely on  Address Verification Service (AVS) checks, though an AVS mismatch isn’t a reliable fraud detector on its own.

Traditional network hacking, account takeover, and skimming and point-of-sale (POS) attacks remain popular with cybercriminals.

Let’s dive a little deeper into the most common strategies and their effects.

Online and Card-Not-Present Fraud

• It’s estimated that CNP fraud accounts for almost three-quarters of card fraud losses in the US. (Finextra)
• This estimate is higher in other territories, with CNP accounting for more than eight in ten cases in the UK, and around nine in ten in Australia. (Finextra)
• Phishing accounted for up to 73.2% of global fraud incidents in 2025. (AppGate)
• In 2025, the majority of credential theft attacks (63.2%) were reportedly linked to authentication systems, suggesting that attackers were focusing on specific targets, not random marks. (Recorded Future)

Physical and Account-Based Fraud

• Skimming, a type of physical card compromise, costs consumers and financial institutions more than $1 billion every year. (FBI)
• Investment in protection against POS tampering at physical venues is growing at a CAGR of 13.1% leading up to 2033. (DataIntelo)
• Card testing fraud is another growing vector. Mastercard Threat Intelligence has reportedly identified more than five million card-testing transactions worldwide since launch. (Mastercard)
• Account takeover fraud accounts for around 32% of all e-commerce fraud. (Statista, via Worldpay)

The Financial Toll of Credit Card Fraud

Credit card fraud doesn’t just harm consumers, but impacts smaller firms’ profitability and reputation, potentially creating short-term costs and loss of business. From chargebacks to operational costs, the effects of even a single fraudulent transaction can ripple, making ecommerce payment security all the more important.

• It’s estimated that 3.2% of merchants’ ecommerce revenue, worldwide, was lost to payment fraud in 2025. (Merchant Risk Council)
• Mid-market businesses are projected to lose an average of 4.5% ecommerce revenue to payment fraud in 2026, higher than rates anticipated for SMBs (3.4%) and enterprises (3.2%) (Merchant Risk Council)
• Every chargeback costs merchants an average of $128 thanks to internal and third-party fees. (Mastercard)
• The global value of chargebacks worldwide is expected to reach $46.1 billion in 2029. (Mastercard)
• 91% of consumers would consider abandoning a brand if they experience fraud during a transaction. (Mastercard)
• Merchants and small businesses also feel operational impacts. Through friendly fraud attacks, for example, it’s estimated each case results in a $78 loss to operational overhead and chargebacks. (Visa)
• Around 72% of small businesses surveyed by the Public Private Strategies Institute (PPSI) experienced fraud, ransomware, or scams in 2025. In terms of material loss, credit card fraud and phishing were the most reported attacks. (PPSI)
• Payment fraud costs for these businesses average almost $60,000. (PPSI)

Who Is Most at Risk?

Small businesses often feel the impact of credit card fraud more than enterprises due to having fewer resources and less financial resilience. However, businesses in hospitality, direct retail, and luxury goods are considered prime targets regardless of size. Consumers of all ages are impacted by credit card fraud, but the majority of cases occur to people in their 30s.

• In the U.S., people aged 30 to 39 are most likely to experience identity theft, with credit card fraud being the most common type. (FTC, via The Motley Fool)
• Businesses with greater fraud exposure include online retailers and subscription platforms. (Ramp)
• Small businesses are more likely to experience more serious damage from credit card fraud, compared to larger enterprises. (Ramp)
• Industries at higher risk of credit card fraud than most include those that have high product value and deliver digital products. Travel, hospitality, technology, and luxury markets, for example, are prime targets. (Ramp)
• Fuel stations are key targets for card skimming, while e-commerce and digital retail are considered the most at risk of CNP scams. (Clearly Payments)
• Up to 84% of consumers engage in “risky” behaviors that exacerbate credit card fraud risk, such as using weak passwords, shopping on unsecured networks, and failing to check statements regularly. (CNBC)

What Consumers Think About Credit Card Fraud

Cardholders are more wary than ever regarding what they share and how they pay online. Post-scam actions vary by person, but it is clear many people are unaware of protections they are entitled to.

• Up to 74% of people surveyed by IPSOS BVA and IDEMIA Group are concerned about fraud via digital tools, and 53% feel more vulnerable now than five years ago. (IDEMIA Group)
• 75% of global consumers are more concerned about cybersecurity impacts and risks compared to two years ago. (Harris, via Mastercard)
• Up to 97% of people impacted by fraud adjust their behaviors online, including what they share and how they pay. (LSEG)
• Just 13% of people fully understand the protections available to them in the event of scams, despite many already using security tools. (LSEG)
• After experiencing a scam, 37% of victims check company legitimacy more frequently, and 46% are more cautious about paying online. (LSEG)
• Around 29% of victims have lost trust in companies and/or people after fraud incidents. (LSEG)

How and When Fraud Gets Discovered

Thanks to real-time fraud detection tools, businesses and consumers can spot suspicious activity in seconds or minutes, depending on platforms and technologies used. However, this also means fraudsters are becoming more efficient and sophisticated to evade justice.

Our research also shows that few people report credit card fraud to authorities, instead preferring to inform their banks and issuers, if at all.

• By using AI and machine learning, the U.S. Department of the Treasury prevented and recovered more than $4 billion in the 2024 fiscal year. (U.S. Department of the Treasury)
• In 2025, while 96% of victims of credit card fraud in the U.S. recovered the money they lost, only around 8% reported it to law enforcement. (Security.org)
• In the same year, 22% of U.S. credit card fraud victims experienced repeat fraud charges from a repeat merchant. This is up from 12% in 2024. (Security.org)
• BPI research, based on the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) Making Ends Meet Survey, states that around 53% of fraud victims report their most recent incidents to banks or credit card companies. (BPI)
• The same research indicates that 4% reported incidents to federal agencies. (BPI)

How Merchants and Cardholders Can Reduce Fraud Risk

Businesses can adopt controls such as advanced payment authentication, real-time threat detection through machine learning, and verification tools  such as AVS and Card Verification Value (CVV)  to protect against CNP fraud.

However, smaller firms should prioritize PCI compliance for small businesses to safeguard the card data they process. The PCI DSS breaks down thorough steps all businesses should take to ensure their card payment controls are airtight against threats.

Alongside PCI DSS compliance, statistics show advanced technologies are increasingly helping to fortify businesses against evolving threats:

• Technology such as advanced authentication solutions measurably  reduces fraud for card issuer clients. Visa, for example, states that its Visa Secure technology boosts authorization rates by 4% on average, with a 7-basis point reduction in fraud. (Visa)
• Adoption of AI to help combat fraud has also delivered some positive results. Mastercard reports that 42% of card issuers and 26% of acquirers surveyed have saved up to $5 million from using AI as part of preventive strategies. (Mastercard)
• Cardholders can take many protective steps to reduce the risk of credit card fraud, yet only 37% of financial scam victims change their passwords after the event. (Security Magazine)

Where Credit Card Fraud Is Headed

Our research shows that credit card fraud will only increase in volume and become more expensive for businesses by the decade’s end. However, this does not mean threat prevention is in vain; rather, it is a call to action to stay PCI compliant as threats evolve.

• The Nilson Report estimates that, by 2030, payment card fraud losses will top $41.06 billion, and by 2034, $48.50 billion, as card volumes increase alongside. (Nilson Report)
• Identity fraud sophistication is accelerating (such as with the use of deepfakes, bots, and automation), with “sophisticated cases” reportedly growing year over  year to 2025. (BNY)
• AI-enabled and enhanced fraud is 4.5 times more profitable than traditional attack methods and vectors. (INTERPOL)
• Digital transaction volumes increased by 18% through 2025, indicating that the potential attack surface size is only expanding. (Sift)
• 71% of small business owners surveyed by PPSI believe AI will make fraud and ransomware more common, with 76% of attack victims confirming AI was involved in their cases. (PPSI)
• Businesses are expected to invest in advanced fraud prevention at scale, with the credit card fraud detection platform market expected to grow at a CAGR of 13.51% to 2034. (Fortune)

Conclusion

Our research shows that credit card fraud awareness and PCI compliance matter  more each year as fraudsters adopt new, more profitable ways to defraud businesses and consumers.  Most importantly, they should be ongoing responsibilities, with cybersecurity and physical fraud protections remaining priorities on your agenda.

Staying PCI compliant is vital to protecting your customers and your own interests against evolving threats. SecureTrust takes the compliance guesswork off your plate. Learn more about our small business solutions and get started today.

Sources

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