Friendly fraud' isn't so friendly. Here's how banks can fight back

First-party card fraud—often dubbed “friendly fraud”—is climbing, and banks are being warned it could worsen as agentic commerce and AI-driven fraud tools spread. Datos Insights estimates global card-related first-party fraud will cost financial institutions and merchants $4.8 billion in 2028, up from $3.9 billion in 2025. Between 2023 and 2024, 35% of financial institutions and 64% of merchants reported year-over-year increases. But the figures may understate the full burden because they exclude account and credit-level fraud, non-card payments, and claim-processing overhead. Experts urge a shift from purely transactional detection to broader, often AI-enabled, solutions.