CREDIT CARD FRAUD DETECTION USING QUANTUM MACHINE LEARNING: A HYBRID CLASSICAL-QUANTUM APPROACH

Abstract

With the rapid growth of digital financial transactions, credit card fraud detection has become a critical challenge in the banking and finance sector. Traditional rule-based systems and classical machine learning (ML) models often struggle to detect complex and evolving fraud patterns, especially in highly imbalanced datasets. This paper proposes

a novel hybrid approach to credit card fraud detection using Quantum Machine Learning (QML) techniques combined with classical methods. The system applies Principal Component Analysis (PCA) for dimensionality reduction and Synthetic Minority Oversampling Technique (SMOTE) to handle class imbalance. A classical Random Forest model is implemented as a baseline, while a QML model based on Variational Quantum Circuits (VQC) is developed using PennyLane. A hybrid decision engine combining predictions of both models is designed for improved performance. Experimental results demonstrate that the hybrid model achieves 96.9% accuracy, outperforming individual models by achieving better detection rates and reducing false predictions. The system is deployed via an interactive Streamlit-based dashboard. This work highlights the potential of Quantum Machine Learning in enhancing fraud detection systems in financial security applications.