Japan logged record losses from the illicit use of credit cards last year, with many consumers falling victim to phishing scams. Card issuers are turning to AI to tackle the problem.

The Japan Consumer Credit Association says the losses reached 55.5 billion yen, or about 370 million dollars. That’s up 10 million dollars from a year earlier and the most since record-keeping began in 1997.

Stolen card details were used in about 92 percent of the cases. Thieves are increasingly using fake websites to trick card-holders into revealing their account information.

Aeon Financial Service reported 66 million dollars in losses from credit card fraud in the year to March. Tens of thousands of Aeon card users were hit by scammers, who used stolen data to make fraudulent transactions.

The Japan Credit Card Association and major credit card companies say they are taking action. From April, they will use artificial intelligence to track the patterns of unlawful transactions and identify fake websites.

The results will be reported to internet service providers with requests to shut down the sites. Card issuers say they have already identified sites impersonating their own companies. Now they plan to expand the dragnet to fake e-commerce platforms and other websites.