Chinese fraud rings are using AI to scale tap to pay scams stealing billions from banks and retailers

4:20 AM · July 17, 2026

Organized crime groups based in China are earning as much as 1 billion dollars a year from tap to pay and text message fraud schemes targeting US retailers and banks, according to CNBC, in a wave of digital theft that is reshaping organized retail crime alongside more traditional shoplifting. The fraudsters use stolen credit card numbers loaded onto phones with tap to pay to purchase gift cards, which can then be resold at a discount, or to buy high value goods that are shipped overseas for resale in China. A common tactic involves mass text messages warning recipients about an unpaid toll, an expiring car registration, or a pending arrest, designed to frighten people into handing over credit card numbers, email credentials, or other sensitive information. Experts told CNBC that AI has only made these schemes easier to run, allowing crime groups to scale their operations more quickly and making the fraudulent messages look and read as more legitimate than earlier, more obviously fake versions. Unlike traditional retail theft, where criminals physically clear merchandise off shelves and resell it piece by piece online, these crimes can be carried out unnoticed right under a store employee's nose or from a computer anywhere in the world, making them both harder to detect and lower risk for the people running them.