Incognia Launches Real-Time Scam Prevention to Combat Social Engineering and APP Fraud

Incognia has launched Real-Time Scam Prevention, an AI-driven solution designed to combat authorized-payment fraud and social engineering schemes. For fintech professionals, this addresses the "clean transaction" problem where legitimate users are manipulated into sending funds. By mapping physical relationships between senders and recipients, the tool identifies high-risk connections that traditional identity verification often misses.

What was announced

The new solution utilizes Incognia’s "Physical Social Graph," which is built on patented Trusted Locations technology. Unlike standard fraud detection that verifies the identity of the person initiating a transaction, this system focuses on the relationship between the sender and the recipient. It uses apartment-level indoor location intelligence to determine if there is a historical, real-world connection between the two parties, helping to identify coordinated fraud activity and suspicious relationships that conventional transaction data might overlook.

The launch comes as impersonation scams reach record levels; according to the FTC, consumers reported losing $3.5 billion to such schemes in 2025, nearly triple the figures from 2020. In a pilot analysis with a major financial institution, Incognia’s technology successfully identified approximately 70% of scam transactions within the dataset, even when the transactions appeared legitimate by conventional standards. This suggests that historical real-world relationships can provide critical evidence of risk when credentials and devices are otherwise verified.

The AI model integrates several risk signals beyond location, including mule-account detection, active-call detection, and remote-access-tool (RAT) detection. It also monitors for device integrity and location-spoofing. By connecting payment activity across participating financial institutions, the platform aims to reveal coordinated fraud networks that operate across different banks. The system provides real-time risk assessments, allowing banks to apply their own policies to the data provided to determine the appropriate action.

The companies involved

Incognia is a specialist in cross-device risk intelligence, focusing on securing digital interactions through a combination of location behavior, device integrity, and behavioral analysis. The company’s core value proposition lies in creating risk signals that are difficult to spoof at scale, providing a layer of security that moves beyond IP addresses or GPS coordinates. By establishing persistent location patterns based on where users regularly spend time, the firm creates a baseline for "trusted" behavior.

Led by CEO and Co-Founder André Ferraz and CTO Alan Gomes, the firm has positioned itself as a provider of "Trusted Locations" technology. This approach moves away from simple transaction snapshots, instead focusing on long-term patterns to distinguish between legitimate users and potential fraudsters. The company operates in a market increasingly pressured by sophisticated social engineering, where the "human element" is the primary vulnerability. Its technology is designed to reduce friction for legitimate users while stopping large-scale fraud by identifying the underlying behavioral patterns that signal a lack of trust.

What FF News has reported before

FF News has closely followed Incognia’s expansion into AI-driven security and its research into global fraud trends. In October 2026, the publication covered the launch of Incognia Launches AI Agent Detection to Secure Autonomous Financial Transactions, which focused on securing the emerging landscape of AI-to-AI payments. Prior to that, in September 2026, FF News reported on the company’s investigation into the industrialization of fraud in Incognia Exposes How Overseas Scam Cities Target Global Financial System. This earlier report detailed how organized "fraud farms" and scam cities leverage technology to target financial institutions on a global scale, highlighting the need for the cross-institutional intelligence that Incognia’s latest product now aims to provide.

What this means

The shift toward "Physical Social Graph" intelligence signals a necessary evolution in the fight against authorized push payment (APP) fraud. As banks successfully harden their perimeters against account takeovers, scammers have pivoted to manipulating the account holder directly. This puts traditional KYC and authentication tools under immense pressure, as they are not designed to detect "willing" but coerced transactions. By focusing on the recipient's relationship to the sender, the industry is moving toward a more holistic view of transaction risk. The primary challenge for the sector remains the balance between privacy and the granular location data required to make these systems effective.