Meta Joins Hands with UK Banks to Curb Online Scams

• Meta has expanded its Fraud Intelligence Reciprocal Exchange (FIRE) service and joined hands with NatWest and Metro Ban to stop the growing issue of online fraud.
• Many more banks are expected to follow suit.
• The banks will share relevant information with Meta which in turn will use it to train its systems to improve scam detection.

Meta is collaborating with UK banks in a first-of-its-kind information-sharing partnership to protect people from scams. NatWest and Metro Bank are the first in the UK to join, with many more expected to follow suit.

Under this initiative, Meta is expanding its Fraud Intelligence Reciprocal Exchange (FIRE) service, which is a threat intelligence sharing program for financial institutions to share information directly with Meta so that it can use it to stop scammers from tricking users.

Simply put, Meta uses the information shared by the banks to train its systems so that it can easily and better detect potential scams and take timely action before any harm can be caused.

Talking about this agreement, Nathaniel Gleicher, Global Head of Counter-Fraud at Meta, said that this program has already helped them disrupt thousands of scammers.

For instance, during the initial testing period, it helped bust a major concert ticket fraud scheme targeting the UK and the US. Also, thanks to the data shared by the trio during the six-month Stop Scams UK initiative, 20,000 scam accounts from 185 URLs were successfully removed.

We will only beat these criminals if we work together and share relevant information related to scams," he added.

Reactions to Meta's Decision to Expand

The expansion decision has been warmly welcomed by banks, the London police, and the National Economic Crime Centre, among others as well. After all, as I mentioned above, the trial run was quite a success, plus it helped Meta strengthen its fraud detection system.

1) David Lindberg, CEO of Retail Banking at NatWest, said that digital scams are a growing concern, and the best way to tackle them is to spot the scam (or scammers) before they can even take the first step.

He believes that partnering with Meta is the best way to make this possible. All in all, they're happy with the ongoing collaboration and are looking forward to using this cross-industry approach to limit fraud.

2) Faisal Hussain, Chief Operating Officer at Metro Bank, also made a statement saying industry-wide problems like scams require industry-wide solutions. Their partnership with Meta is an inspiration on how working together can help curb the growing threat of scammers.

3) Adrian Searle, Director of the National Economic Crime Centre, called this welcome news and said that they're looking forward to working with Meta.

4) Nik Adams, Temporary Assistant Commissioner, City of London Police, shared similar sentiments and announced that they welcome Meta's decision. He added that at a time when most scams are technologically driven, it's important that tech companies take the initiative to fight against the issue.

Why Did Meta Suddenly Decide to Expand Its Programme?

There could be two reasons for this. For starters, the company is under immense pressure to eliminate scammers from its platforms. During 2021-2022, the British digital bank Starling, which is backed by Goldman Sachs, decided to boycott Meta and stop advertising on its platforms unless it eliminates scammers from Facebook and Instagram.

The second reason could be that in 2023, Meta signed the Online Fraud Charter. This is a voluntary agreement between tech companies and the government to tackle fraud. It requires tech companies to remove malicious ads from their platforms or risk getting fined by the OfCom for non-compliance.

It's worth noting that Meta already had policies in place to prevent financial fraud. However, authorized push payment (APP) fraud, where a scammer impersonates a person or business and tries to convince the victim to send money, remained a growing issue.

Despite all efforts, APP frauds rose by 12% in 2023, and users lost over 460 million in total. So, it was high time that Meta took additional steps to combat fraud on its platform.

Plus, given the fact that from October 7, UK banks and other financial institutions will be required to reimburse the victims of fraud for claims up to 85,000, they're more than happy to join Meta's initiative.

The post Meta Joins Hands with UK Banks to Curb Online Scams appeared first on The Tech Report.