Meta is partnering with UK banks to catch scammers

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Scammers on social media may soon be a thing of the past

The Meta logo on a smartphone in front of the Facebook logo a little bit blurred in the background
(Image credit: Shutterstock / rafapress)

Meta has announced an information sharing partnership with a number of UK banks in an effort to combat the rising number of scams run on social media sites such as Facebook and Instagram.

The Fraud Intelligence Reciprocal Exchange (or FIRE for short) program will allow financial institutions to share threat intelligence with Meta to better combat scams and protect social media users.

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Scammers beware

“This work has already seen us take action against thousands of accounts run by scammers, indicating the importance of banks and platforms working together to tackle this societal issue,” said Nathaniel Gleicher, Global Head of Counter-Fraud at Meta.

“We will only beat these criminals if we work together and share relevant information related to scams. Financial institutions can share unique information with us which we can in turn use to train our systems to take action against more scams globally."

As part of the pilot, both NatWest and Metro Bank shared information with Meta on a prolific concert ticket scam which, in collaboration with Stop Scams UK, was able to take down 20,000 scammer accounts across 185 URLs.

Both the City of London Police and the National Economic Crime Centre (NECC) have praised the program, with NECC Director Adrian Searle commenting, “The expansion of Meta’s scam reporting channel, following a successful pilot, is welcome news – demonstrating a willingness to help tackle the scourge of online fraud, by bringing together data from across the bank and technology sectors.”

“It follows the establishment of the Online Fraud Charter in 2023, in which leading tech companies signed a voluntary agreement, recognising and seeking to reduce the risk of fraud and financial exploitation of UK citizens on their platforms. Partnership between the public and the private sector is key to preventing this pervasive threat. We look forward to working with Meta, building on FIRE’s early success, sharing data across sectors to impact the Fraud threat at scale,” Searle said.

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Benedict Collins
Benedict Collins
Senior Writer, Security

Benedict is a Senior Security Writer at TechRadar Pro, where he has specialized in covering the intersection of geopolitics, cyber-warfare, and business security.

Benedict provides detailed analysis on state-sponsored threat actors, APT groups, and the protection of critical national infrastructure, with his reporting bridging the gap between technical threat intelligence and B2B security strategy.

Benedict holds an MA (Distinction) in Security, Intelligence, and Diplomacy from the University of Buckingham Centre for Security and Intelligence Studies (BUCSIS), with his specialization providing him with a robust academic framework for deconstructing complex international conflicts and intelligence operations, and the ability to translate intricate security data into actionable insights.