It’s a scenario most people have encountered: you try to make a big or unexpected purchase on your credit card, and, at the moment you need it the most, the card gets declined.
Sometimes, it’s as simple as confirming the purchase via text message, and you can quickly complete the transaction. Other times, it’s a days-long process that involves confirmation codes, mailed letters and waiting on hold with the card company to validate that it was indeed you who wanted to buy the product.
The rate of fraud alerts is “absolutely” going up, according to Deloitte U.S. risk & financial advisory principal Satish Lalchand.
It can’t be ignored, because many of the alerts are not false alarms.
About 60% of credit card holders in 2023 experienced some sort of attempted fraud, according to Experian.
“Fraud in general across all channels, whether it’s check fraud, credit card fraud payments, the peer-to-peer payments, everything, is significantly increasing at a very rapid pace,” Lalchand said.
Global card losses attributed to fraud reached $33 billion in 2022, according to payments industry research company Nilson Report, with the U.S. market representing roughly 40% of losses. It has forecast a persistent threat that could reach nearly $400 billion in card fraud in the decade to 2032.
“What’s driving a lot of this type of fraud, is the fraudsters themselves are using AI in general,” Lalchand said. “So, they are able to now move much faster.”
In the past, cybercriminals could open five to ten accounts a day. Now, it’s hundreds, if not thousands of accounts, thanks to advancements in artificial intelligence.
But at the same time AI is helping to detect potentially problematic transactions, with the downside of many cases turning out to be false alarms.
“When we come down to credit cards, financial institutions are investing more in the concept of fraud and fraud modernization, replacing older technology and having better fraud detection capabilities, and retuning their alerts,” Lalchand said. “That’s also causing a lot more on the detection side to go up.”
More personal data is being stolen
Michael Bruemmer, Experian vice president and head of its global data breach resolution and consumer protection division, says a lot more fraud is being done in other ways than stealing your credit card number, using other portions of your financial background, identity background, social security number.
Just in the past five months, there have been four major data breaches including Ticketmaster, Change Healthcare, AT&T and National Public Data. More data breaches can lead to more scrutiny and more preemptive alert protocols, although they are often not the main reason for alerts, according to Experian.
There is some good news. Overall, the rate of false purchases on credit cards is actually decreasing, according to Experian. There have been 416,582 cases of credit card fraud that have been perpetrated in 2024. It’s down 5.4% versus 2023.
AI’s ability to detect patterns based on previous behavior has helped. While you may still get credit card blocks on purchases that seem out of the ordinary, technology has improved fraud alerts in other ways. MasterCard said it’s observed on average a 20% increase in its ability to detect fraud thanks to AI, and up to 300% increase in its ability to detect fraud without more false alerts. Mastercard declined to provide statistics on the absolute level of fraud and overall accuracy of fraud detection.
“We’ve come such a long way to actually reduce the friction out there,” said Johan Gerber, Mastercard executive vice president and head of security solutions.
Take for example, travel plans and making purchases in a foreign country. Before, people would have to call the credit card company. Now, card companies automatically note vacations and travel patterns based on past purchase behavior. Technology has also made it faster to identify and clear flagged fraud alerts if it is indeed a false alarm. Instead of having to call and wait on hold, in many cases verification can be done in a matter of minutes through authorized related accounts or through information only the individual cardholder would know.
Tips to cut down on unnecessary alerts
Today, some scenarios will raise concerns within current security parameters. Experian notes that while data breaches may turn up the dial on fraud alerts, it’s actually changes in shopping patterns that are guaranteed to set off red flags. If you’re buying something at a new store or purchasing a big ticket item that you don’t usually buy, that’s typically something that will be noted. MasterCard also said trying multiple transactions quickly in a row will always alert their systems. So, you can expect these will usually garner some sort of temporary block.
“It’s a balance,” Gerber said. “Do I want to be inconvenienced? Do you potentially want a transaction that [MasterCard] may get wrong because [we] declined you? Or do I want to sit on the other side of the loss of trust in that [we] actually did let a transaction through and you should have known it’s not me.”
Other things you can do to ensure that you get mostly accurate fraud alerts is to sign up for monitoring services and personally set limit alerts on your accounts. Most institutions will let you place monetary limits on when you can get notified about big transactions. Freezing your credit file, using a password manager and using two-factor authentication for your financial accounts with a biometric passcode can also be beneficial.
“Try to shop on regular, reputable shopping sites, and if you’re going to use a credit card, have a low-level limit credit card that’s only used for those shopping sites,” Bruemmer said. “I would also recommend using a tap-to-pay or a mobile app and then make sure you’re not shopping on a public Wi-Fi network.”
And, even if the alerts may be annoying, never ignore them. Even though it may seem like you get notice of a data breach every day, it doesn’t mean you won’t eventually be affected.
“Consumers should pay attention to all of this, because it’s just a matter of time … they will be impacted,” Lachland said.
U.S. President-elect Donald Trump has accused Taiwan of “stealing” his country’s chip industry. But Taiwan’s biggest chip company is confident the Trump administration will continue funding its projects in the U.S.
Speaking to CNBC’s Emily Tan in an exclusive interview, TSMC Chief Financial Officer Wendell Huang said the funding was expected to continue to roll in gradually under Trump as the fabrication plants pass construction and production milestones.
“As a matter of fact, in the fourth quarter, we already received the first batch of government support,” Haung said, revealing the contract chip manufacturer had got $1.5 billion in funds.
Following some production delays, the first fabrication plant in Arizona started producing advanced chips in the fourth quarter of last year, Huang said. He added that the construction of two plants in Arizonawas on track, with the second expected to be operational in 2028.
TSMC’s first investment in Arizona was announced in May 2020, with the company’s total investment in the its three projects there eventually standing at over $65 billion.
Much of the investments were committed after the Biden administration signed the bipartisan CHIPS Act in August 2022, committing almost $53 billion to invest in the domestic semiconductor supply chain and counter China.
While the incoming President is also expected to make competition with China and onshoring manufacturing a priority in his second term, there has been debate as to whether Trump and the Republican-led House would re-examine the CHIPS Act.
During his campaign for the White House, Trump publicly criticized the bill and its price tag, arguing instead that tariffs were a more effective strategy to onshore chip manufacturing. The President-elect also accused Taiwan of “stealing” U.S. chip business.
However, industry experts have told CNBC that they expect Trump to leave the policy mostly intact due to its bipartisan support in Washington.
TSMC on Thursday reported record profit for the fourth quarter on strong demand for its AI chips, sending its shares up nearly 4%. Shares closed 1.36% higher on Friday.
In an earnings call following the esults, CEO and Chairman C.C. Wei highlighted TSMC’s “long-standing and good relationship” with the U.S. government and the commitment and support it has received on the federal, state and city levels.
“Let me assure you that we have a very frank and open communication with the current government and with the future one also,” he said in response to an investor question.
On Thursday, Wei also said that the company would not attend Trump’s inauguration as it prefers to keep a low profile.
TikTok was available to some U.S. users on Sunday after President-elect Donald Trump said that he would sign an executive order on Monday to delay a federal ban of the app.
In a statement on X, the company wrote that it would bring back access to its American users.
“In agreement with our service providers, TikTok is in the process of restoring service,” TikTok wrote. “We thank President Trump for providing the necessary clarity and assurance to our service providers that they will face no penalties providing TikTok to over 170 million Americans and allowing over 7 million small businesses to thrive.”
The decision is “a strong stand for the First Amendment and against arbitrary censorship,” the company added. “We will work with President Trump on a long-term solution that keeps TikTok in the United States.”
This came after Trump wrote on his social media app Truth Social he would “issue an executive order on Monday” to extend the period of time before the ban was set to take place.
“I’m asking companies not to let TikTok stay dark!” Trump wrote on Sunday morning.
Although TikTok was shut down for American users late Saturday night, and also removed from Apple and Google’s app stores, some were able to log on to the platform on Sunday through their desktops.
This is a breaking news story. Please check back for updates.
An aerial view of repair vehicles at sunset passing near beachfront homes that burned in the Palisades Fire as wildfires cause damage and loss through the LA region on January 15, 2025 in Malibu, California.
Mario Tama | Getty Images
Midway through December, tech entrepreneur Dan Preston debuted insurance startup Stand’s first product focused on protecting property in wildfire zones. He should have had months to work with prospective customers and to market the offering before any catastrophic fires hit the U.S.
In California, Stand’s home state, fire season normally lasts from early summer through October or November. Stand, which Preston co-founded early last year, announced a $30 million financing round and the new product on Dec. 16, a few days before the official start of winter.
But it’s been a winter like no other. Three weeks after Stand’s launch, wildfires ravaged parts of Los Angeles, killing more than two-dozen people, scorching about 41,000 acres due to extreme winds and destroying at least 12,300 structures.
“This is certainly not a time you would normally see events like this,” Preston said in an interview this week. “It has put an accelerant on business in a pretty massive way. As soon as this stuff started happening, the inbound demand was about 5-10x overnight.”
Preston has been trying to innovate within the typically boring and slow-moving insurance industry for well over a decade. In 2013, he became technology chief at auto insurance upstart Metromile, and later took on the role of CEO, guiding the company into the public market in 2020 through a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC). Metromile hit a rough patch after its SPAC and sold to tech-powered insurer Lemonade in 2022. Preston stayed on at Lemonade for another year.
At Stand, Preston is aiming to go big in a market that legacy insurers are rapidly abandoning because it’s viewed as too risky. As of mid-2024, at least eight insurance carriers had left the state or limited their exposure. The California FAIR Plan, generally viewed as an insurer of last resort, had seen a 137% increase since 2019, and that was well before the latest LA fires began. According to LendingTree, about 10% of homes in Los Angeles are uninsured.
It’s not a surprise that firms are exiting the state. Goldman Sachs estimates that insurers could face up to $30 billion in losses tied to the LA. fires.
Through a combination of technology and a reimagining of home insurance, Preston wants to offer reasonably priced protection to homeowners in wildfire zones.
Stand CEO Dan Preston, who was previously CEO at Metromile
Winni Wintermeyer
For property owners, the key piece is recognizing that they have to make changes to their homes and the surrounding land so that fires are less likely to spread out of control. That could include pruning trees, replacing wood fencing with steel or adding concrete barriers between homes. Stand uses artificial intelligence and what it calls “physics-driven insights tailored to each property” to make specific mitigation recommendations that can make a property insurable.
Preston said the company, which currently has 13 employees, has only insured a few properties so far, but is in talks with hundreds of potential customers. That number is increasing dramatically, he said, as property owners start to understand the consequences of the LA fires.
“It will be a lot harder for folks to find insurance the next couple years because of this event,” Preston said. “In some ways, we have have a responsibility to level up our ambitions, bringing insurance back to the market.”
Clerico said he can’t talk about Convective’s fundraising at the moment, but he is using the disaster to try to raise awareness about strategies for wildfire mitigation and some of the tools and technologies that are available. In a post on X on Jan. 8, Clerico wrote that four keys to dealing with wildfires are forest and fuel management, rapid detection using cameras and satellites, “hardening” of homes and communities, and reducing fires caused by utilities.
“The bottlenecks are mostly around adoption and deployment — a lot of these technologies are not cutting-edge stuff,” Clerico said in an interview. “Drones have existed for decades, satellites for decades. It’s cameras and software, which found its way into every aspect of society expect public safety.”
Before launching Convective three years ago, Clerico was co-founder and CEO of fintech startup WePay, which he sold to JPMorgan Chase in 2017. He then spent over three year’s as a managing director for the bank in the Bay Area,
Stand simulation
Stand
Clerico lives in San Francisco and has a cabin in Anderson Valley, about 115 miles north of the city. He said that a wildfire there in 2018 inspired him to volunteer at the local fire department and was a factor in leading him to start investing in the space.
While VCs have poured into clean tech in recent years, they’ve mostly avoided investing in companies focused on resiliency and adaptation, in large part because the buyers are “pretty large slow-moving institutions, like utilities, government and insurance,” he said.
Clerico said that what’s unique about Stand relative to other tech startups that have tried to crack insurance is that competition in its target market is dwindling rather than increasing.
“Existing insurers don’t compete, they’re exiting,” Clerico said. “if you can have better informed view on risk, it’s a much more favorable place for a startups.”
Still, it’s an extremely tough market.
Stand is currently focused on homes that are worth $2 million to $10 million, which Preston said covers properties facing a lot of “distress.” The company is working with a number of reinsurers and expects to be able to bring costs down as it proves the model can work.
But making a meaningful contribution to the bigger problem will require significant behavioral and structural changes in neighborhoods that, like Pacific Palisades in LA, are suddenly at risk of almost disappearing overnight. The mission has to go well beyond protecting individual homes one at a time.
“We might be able to play a much larger role in the state of safety if we can work with neighborhoods, and require homeowners and city officials to design neighborhoods to be more resilient,” Preston said.