Skip to content
Modulr glossary

Authorised Push Payment (APP) Fraud

Authorised Push Payment (APP) Fraud occurs when a fraudster tricks an individual or business into making a legitimate payment to a criminal’s account. This type of fraud exploits social engineering rather than hacking systems, and relies on the victim mistakenly ‘pushing’ the payment out from their account to the fraudster, rather than having funds taken or ‘pulled’ from their account without their consent. As automation increases and payments are made on an increasing number of platforms and devices, the risk of APP Fraud grows, and Modulr is committed to working across the industry to share insights, identify new opportunities for collaboration and promote customer awareness of how to prevent APP fraud. To contact Modulr if you’ve been a victim of fraud on your Modulr account, please call our 24/7 support team on 159 (or dial +44 (0) 303 313 0060), alternatively complete this .

Applications

E-commerce:

Reduces fraud in online card payments by verifying the cardholder's identity

Banking and fintech:

Helps issuers and payment providers comply with Strong Customer Authentication (SCA) requirements.

Advantages

  • Enhanced security: Reduces unauthorised transactions by verifying that the genuine account holder is authorising the payment
  • Fraud prevention: Helps reduce chargebacks related to fraud.

Challenges

  • User Experience: Additional authentication steps can cause friction and increase checkout abandonment
  • Implementation complexity: Requires integration with card schemes and issuer systems.

Sign up to our newsletter for our latest news and insights