Meta works with UK banks to fight fraudsters

Meta, the parent company of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, has announced a new partnership with leading UK banks to combat online fraud.

The Fraud Intelligence Reciprocal Exchange (FIRE) collaboration aims to improve Meta's ability to detect and dismantle fraud networks operating on its platforms.

By sharing information directly with Meta, UK banks can help the social media giant identify and suspend fraudulent accounts.

“Today we are announcing the expansion of a unique information sharing partnership with banks to protect people from fraud. The Fraud Intelligence Reciprocal Exchange (FIRE) is a threat intelligence exchange program for financial institutions that allows banks to share information directly with us so we can use it to stop fraudsters and protect users,” Meta said in a Blog post.

NatWest and Metro Bank are the first UK banks to join the FIRE initiative, but Meta expects more to follow.

The company has already had success using shared data to dismantle fraud networks. For example, information from these banks helped Meta identify and close 20,000 accounts involved in a concert ticket scam targeting users in the UK and US.

This collaboration is crucial in the fight against online fraudsters, says Nathaniel Gleicher, Global Head of Counter-Fraud at Meta.

“We will only defeat 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 combat further fraud globally,” he added.

The new partnership comes amid growing pressure on Meta to do more to stop fraudsters from operating on its platforms. In recent years, several financial institutions have criticized the company for not adequately addressing the issue.

Meta has long had policies in place to combat financial fraud, but has faced the challenge of keeping up with fraudsters' evolving tactics.

Banks continue to pressure big tech companies to take more responsibility for fraud emanating from their platforms.

A mandatory refund policy for authorized push payment (APP) fraud comes into effect in the UK on July 7th^Th October 2024. The new rules were introduced by the Payment Services Regulator (PSR) on June 7, 2023 and require UK payment service providers to compensate customers affected by APP fraud in most cases, with a few exceptions. However, since the majority of APP fraud occurs online, banks argue that the tech giants should share the burden of preventing such losses.

The expansion of the FIRE program was welcomed by both the banking industry and law enforcement.

David Lindberg, CEO of retail banking at NatWest, praised the partnership as “an important step in tackling the fraud epidemic”.

Law enforcement agencies have also expressed support for the initiative.

Adrian Searle, Director of the National Economic Crime Centre, highlighted the importance of collaboration between the public and private sectors in preventing fraud.

Mark Tierney, CEO of Stop Scams UK, a community anti-fraud project, hailed FIRE as a potential game-changer in reporting fraudulent content.

“Stop Scams UK strongly believes that collaborative projects like FIRE can lead to greater data sharing and improved reporting, which is vital to successfully tackling fraud,” said Tierney.