Meta and Stop Scams members announce FIRE expansion
Meta has announced the expansion of a first-of-its-kind information sharing partnership with banks to help protect people against fraud following a collaborative effort with Stop Scams UK.
The Fraud Intelligence Reciprocal Exchange (FIRE) is a threat intelligence sharing programme for financial institutions, allowing banks to share intelligence with Meta directly so Meta can use it to stop scammers and protect users.
Under the collaborative umbrella of Stop Scams UK, NatWest and Metro Bank are the first banks in the UK to participate in this pilot, with more scheduled to join.
We believe FIRE could become a gamechanger for reporting fraudulent content, helping protect consumers and ensuring both banks and Meta gain better visibility of the abuse carried out on their systems by scammers.
Mark Tierney, CEO Stop Scams UK
“We’re delighted to see some of our member banks join Meta’s FIRE initiative in another positive example of cross-sector collaboration,” said Stop Scams UK CEO Mark Tierney.
“We believe FIRE could become a gamechanger for reporting fraudulent content, helping protect consumers and ensuring both banks and Meta gain better visibility of the abuse carried out on their systems by scammers.
“Stop Scams UK passionately believes that collaborative projects such as FIRE can lead to wider data-sharing and improve reporting which is key to successfully tackling scams.”
Key successes from the initial pilot include the takedown of a significant concert ticket scam network attempting to target people in the UK and US.
Thanks to data shared between NatWest, Metro Bank and Meta during the six-month pilot, Meta was able to remove approximately 20,000 accounts run by scammers from the 185 URLs shared, which in turn has helped the company to strengthen its fraud detection capabilities.
“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
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.”
The expansion of the pilot has been welcomed by many in the banking industry, as well as by the City of London Police and the National Economic Crime Centre, amongst others.
Feedback following the initial pilot stage has been positive and Meta will now onboard more banks over the coming months as we continue to test and learn.
“Spotting and stopping fraudsters before they are able to target customers is the best way to address this growing problem,” said David Lindberg, CEO of Retail Banking, NatWest.
“Partnering with Meta is an important step in tackling the epidemic of fraud. We welcome the opportunity to deepen our collaboration and ensure a cross-industry approach to fraud prevention and enforcement.”
Through sharing this information, we hope to significantly improve scam detection and enforcement, ultimately creating a safer digital environment for everyone.
Faisal Hussain, Chief Operating Officer at Metro Bank
Faisal Hussain, Chief Operating Officer at Metro Bank commented: “Scams are an industry-wide problem which require industry-wide solutions. We’ve been inspired by our work with Meta as an example of how we can all work together to protect consumers from faceless online fraudsters. Through sharing this information, we hope to significantly improve scam detection and enforcement, ultimately creating a safer digital environment for everyone.”
Adrian Searle, Director of the National Economic Crime Centre, added: “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.”
Nik Adams, Temporary Assistant Commissioner, City of London Police, said: “As national lead force for fraud, we welcome the commitments made by Meta after the launch of the Online Fraud Charter last year and now Meta’s scam reporting channel. It is vital for the tech industry to help in the fight against online fraud.”
