Global payments giant Visa has issued a critical consumer advisory for UAE residents following a comprehensive study revealing that nearly half of all consumers in the Emirates have been targeted by financial scams over the past few months. The uptick in fraudulent activity coincides with a massive surge in the adoption of generative AI tools by online shoppers, which digital bad actors are increasingly exploiting to craft highly realistic phishing templates, fake retail portals, and deceptive payment gateways. Financial security experts are advising the expatriate population to exercise extreme caution when encountering unsolicited promotional links or deep-discount advertisements on social media. Visa emphasized the importance of verifying secure checkout links, utilizing multi-factor authentication, and relying on tokenized digital wallets to safeguard personal banking credentials from evolving cyber threats.