Push Payment Fraud StatisticsMerchants & Consumers Alike End Up Paying a High Price for “Voluntary” Theft
Push Payment Fraud: Statistics & Financial Impact
Here’s an inconvenient truth that catches many merchants and consumers off guard: because the victim “authorized” a push payment, funds lost to push payment scams may be difficult to recover.
Although laws in certain countries, like the UK, are changing to protect consumers and merchants, regulatory gaps still persist. The result is that push payment fraud drains billions of dollars from the global economy every year, while leaving some victims — especially those in the US — with little recourse.
In this chapter, let’s look at the true impact of push payment fraud and discuss why legal gaps and emerging technologies are still leaving victims holding the bag.
Push Payment Fraud
How does push payment fraud work and what can merchants do to identify and protect it? In this guide, we’ll share some tips and tricks to help you stay safe.
APP Fraud: Impacts for Consumers, Merchants, & Banks
It’s not only cardholders that should worry about being victimized by push payment fraud. Push payment fraud negatively impacts everyone involved:
2x: Expected growth in APP fraud losses in the US, UK, and India in 2026.
Source: ACI Worldwide
$8.3 billion: US APP fraud losses in 2024.
Source: Deloitte
$4.6 billion: US APP fraud losses in 2024 attributable to investment scams, the most prevalent APP fraud tactic.
Source: Deloitte
95%%: Annualized growth in APP fraud involving investment scams between 2020 and 2024.
Source: Deloitte
$2.5 billion: US APP fraud losses in 2024 attributable to imposter scams.
Source: Deloitte
$14.9 billion: Estimated APP fraud losses in the US by 2028.
Source: Deloitte
$30 billion: Estimated global fraud losses due to AI-enabled scams by 2027.
Source: Deloitte
£620 million: APP fraud losses in the UK in the first six months of 2025.
Source: BBC
110,747: Number of APP fraud cases reported in the UK in the first six months of 2025.
Source: UK Finance
66% Percentage of APP fraud cases in the UK that originated online.
Source: UK Finance
Why US Victims Bear 80% of APP Fraud Losses
Jurisdictions like the UK have taken steps to protect senders from authorized push payment scams. Across the pond, however, victims of push payment fraud have far fewer protections.
As it stands currently in the United States, a sender who authorized a transaction to a fraudster is usually on the hook for the whole amount. While the Electronic Fund Transfer Act (EFTA) and Regulation E provide robust protections against unauthorized transactions, current legislation provides few protections in situations where consumers are tricked into sending the money themselves.
Banks have also historically been hesitant to cover fraud losses from push payments, arguing that reimbursing authorized payments would create a moral hazard where consumers stop being careful. For these reasons, US consumers and merchants usually have zero recourse when it comes to fraudulent push payments.
In any case, here’s how platforms compare in terms of protections for authorized payments:
Zelle
In late 2024, Zelle updated its rules to reimburse victims of specific imposter scams (like someone pretending to be a bank official). However, general purchase scams or romance scams still remain uncovered. If you authorized the transfer, Zelle largely considers the transaction valid.
FedNow
As a clearing rail rather than a consumer app, FedNow provides the infrastructure for instant payments but mandates zero consumer protection or payment dispute resolution mechanisms. Instead, projections for victims of fraudulent push payments are left entirely up to the participating financial institutions themselves.
Venmo & PayPal
These two platforms distinguish between “Friends and Family” and “Goods and Services” transactions. If you send a commercial payment using the “Friends and Family” option to save on fees, you waive all purchase protections entirely.
Cash App
Cash App transactions are instant and generally irreversible. As the platform itself notes, “Cash App can’t cancel or refund a payment after it has been completed.” As a result, victims have extremely limited avenues for dispute resolution.
Traditional Wire Transfers
Wire transfers are completely irreversible. Once the wire is sent and accepted by the beneficiary bank, it is final. Recalling a fraudulent wire is exceptionally difficult and depends entirely on the goodwill of the receiving bank.
How Fraudsters Use AI Voice Cloning & Deepfakes to Make Scams Undetectable
Generative AI technologies, such as deepfake and voice cloning tools, are being co-opted by push payment fraudsters to make scams even more believable. When combined with existing fraud tactics like caller ID spoofing, today’s push payment attacks are virtually indistinguishable from requests from genuine requesters. Emerging fraud tactics include:
Why Is It So Difficult to Defend Against APP Fraud?
AI-enabled fraud presents an especially thorny challenge for defenders because traditional fraud detection relies on spotting geolocation, amount, or device anomalies attached to transactions.
In APP fraud, however, the transaction data is legitimate: the customer is using their own device, their own biometrics, and their own IP address. Technically, the transaction itself isn’t even fraudulent; it’s authorized by the sender, after all. What’s fraudulent is the context surrounding it and the recipient requesting it.
Detecting this requires a shift toward behavioral fraud detection techniques that can identify subtle signs of coercion, such as a user hesitating while on a lengthy call, rather than just looking at the payment data itself.
