Broadcom Launches Arcot Scam Defense to Block Social Engineering

Broadcom Inc. launched Arcot Scam Defense on October 21, 2026, to combat social engineering fraud during card-not-present transactions. The security feature serves as a second layer of defense during 3-D Secure authentication, analyzing transaction patterns and device intelligence after a cardholder has already passed biometric or one-time password challenges.

The system identifies fraud by detecting active phone calls during authentication, delayed password entry, or discrepancies in location and behavior between the checkout and authenticating devices. Broadcom reports that nearly $500 million in fraud occurred over the last 12 months on challenges that were successfully authenticated.

In pilot testing with one major issuer, the tool would have prevented an estimated $4 million in fraud in a single month by reviewing the top 1% of successful challenges. This resulted in a 0.38 percentage point reduction in the authentication success rate. Broadcom plans to expand the tool's capabilities by adding a challenge history profiling engine and further device attributes.