INSTANT PAYMENTS FRAUD PREVENTION

Trust every instant payment with adaptive, behavior-based fraud defense.

Keep your digital business safe from Instant Payments Fraud with XTN Cognitive Security®:

Avoid financial loss
Stop reputational damage

Market Overview

Instant payments transform how money moves fast, seamlessly, and is always available. But this speed has opened the door to a new wave of fraud.

Scammers exploit the immediacy of real-time transfers to bypass traditional controls, tricking users into authorizing payments that are impossible to reverse. These are not isolated incidents: across Europe and beyond, fraud attempts targeting instant payment channels are rising sharply. Europe alone processed 7.6 billion instant payments in 2023, a figure set to nearly triple by 2028, approaching 21 billion annual transactions.

From social engineering to impersonation attacks, fraudsters have learned to weaponize urgency. And with instant settlement, there’s no time to react. The result? Financial losses, customer distrust, and growing regulatory pressure on service providers.

Instant payments bring convenience. But without the proper protection, they also bring risk.

What is it?

Instant payment fraud occurs when criminals either manipulate users into willingly sending real-time money transfers under false pretenses or take control of user accounts to execute unauthorized transfers directly.

Like many other scams, this type of fraud relies on social engineering to trick the victim into authorizing the transaction. Because the user initiates the transfer, it often slips past traditional fraud controls. And with real-time settlement, there’s no room for second thoughts.

How does it work?

Instant payment fraud starts long before the money moves. It begins with manipulation, convincing the victim to act quickly and trust the wrong people. Common tactics include:

Impersonation scams: Fraudsters pose as trusted contacts—bank staff, government agents, or suppliers—to prompt urgent transfers.
Account takeover: Using stolen credentials, attackers access user accounts and authorize instant transfers.
Money muling: Criminals use other people’s bank accounts, sometimes knowingly, sometimes unknowingly, to quickly move stolen funds across multiple accounts.

These schemes rely on tricking users into authorizing transfers they believe are legitimate. Because instant payments settle immediately, there is no time to stop or reverse the transaction once it’s done.

The challenge

With instant payments, there’s no delay, no reversal, no margin for error. Fraud teams must act in real time, as transactions settle in seconds and funds become instantly available, often before anyone spots the fraud. Cross-border payments add complexity, with fragmented regulations and inconsistent screening rules making prevention even harder to coordinate.

From October 2025, this will also become a compliance issue. New EU regulation requires PSPs in the euro area to adopt effective fraud detection for instant credit transfers, turning fraud prevention into a legal obligation, not just a business priority. Get to know more by downloading our white paper.

No Room for Fraud: XTN’s Proven Defense Against Instant Payments Fraud

Our XTN Cognitive Security Platform® offers a modular, holistic approach that covers the full user journey to stop fraud early and effectively. It consists of three integrated modules focused on protecting user identity, securing access to mobile and web apps, and monitoring online transactions in real time.

This layered protection leverages proprietary AI and GenAI algorithms, advanced behavioral analytics, and device intelligence to detect suspicious activities with unmatched precision. Many fraud attempts, such as account takeover, scams, and money muling, start well before the payment is initiated, and our platform catches these early warning signs to prevent losses.

Thanks to flexible third-party integrations and a SaaS deployment model, XTN adapts easily to evolving threats and regulatory demands like the EU Payment Services Regulation, ensuring compliance without compromising user experience or operational efficiency.

Key features of XTN’s solution include:

Payment Flow Analysis
Monitors volume and speed of execution of payments to detect unusual behaviors and prevent fraud in real time
User History and Behavior Analysis
Correlates historical activity and behavioral patterns to identify deviations from genuine user behavior.
Watchlist Evaluation
Checks transactions against Indicators of Compromise (IoC) and Indicators of Fraud (IoF) to flag known threats.
Flexible Policy and Rules Management
Enables dynamic configuration of fraud detection rules, adapting controls based on risk level without adding friction.
Real-Time Risk Scoring and Response
Applies advanced risk models via API to assess threats instantly and trigger appropriate countermeasures.