Tech
Meta, Match, Coinbase and more team up to fight online fraud and crypto scams
Hosting scams on your platform is bad for business, which is why on Tuesday a group of major tech companies including Match Group, Meta, Coinbase and others will jointly launch a new coalition to address online fraud across dating apps, social media and cryptocurrencies .
The new coalition, Tech Against Scams, will work together to find ways to combat the tools used by scammers and to better educate the public against financial scams.
Even before series like “The Tinder Swindler,” romance scams cost users huge sums. According to the US Federal Trade Commission, these types of scams cost victims more than any other type of consumer fraud as of 2019. Social media fraud is also a problem: US consumers lost $770 million in social media scams in 2021up 18 times from 2017. Last year, the FTC also reported that investment scams resulted in consumer losses amounting to more than 3.8 billion dollarsor more than double the amount lost in 2021.
And then there is, of course, cryptocurrency, an industry so rife with fraud that company founders and other industry notables are going to prison for fraud and scams, money laundering, cyber attacks and more. A entire blog it was created just to keep track of the latest fallout in this space, in fact.
While this fraud happens on platforms, rather than being committed by the platforms themselves (well… outside of cryptocurrencies), allowing it to run rampant can give tech companies a bad name. Additionally, many of the scams span multiple platforms, such as how a dating app scam can lead a user to a cryptocurrency exchange, for example. This has led to increased demand for better data sharing between companies to help combat the problem.
In addition to Meta, Coinbase, and Match (the parent company of Tinder, Hinge, and others), there are others in the crypto space like Kraken, Ripple, and Gemini. Together, the companies plan to work to protect their users from romance scams and other types of fraud, such as the crypto scam known as “pig slaughter.” The latter is a long-term scam involving investment fraud, where the victim is tricked into making investments in cryptocurrencies. The scammer often targets social app users, befriending them or building trust through communication before stealing their funds.
With artificial intelligence, the difference between scams and real-life interactions also becomes increasingly difficult to spot. As Yahoo Finance reported last year, scammers are use artificial intelligence to create “persuasive FaceTime calls, phone calls and emails” to their victims, where they can pose as loved ones, potential lovers, friends, or even IRS agents.
“Collaboration between technology companies across all industries is essential to prevent criminal activity and ultimately helps online platforms stay ahead of the curve, develop effective solutions, and address various types of financial crimes,” said Yoel Roth, VP of Trust & Safety at Match Group, and previously at Twitter. “As we aim to make it more difficult for scammers to defraud users online, we will also continue to invest in features to help combat fraud and remove scammers from our platform before they commit harm.”
Guy Rosen, Chief Security Officer at Meta, added that companies must join forces to fully address this issue. “The scammers and organized criminal groups behind pig slaughter schemes target people across many internet services, making it difficult for any company to see the full picture of malicious activity and rely on each of us working in silos,” he observed.
To protect users from fraud on their respective platforms, the companies will share tips and information with each other. They will collaborate on how to educate and protect consumers from the ever-evolving array of financial scams on the market. Coalition members will also continue to work with law enforcement, when necessary, to support their investigations by sharing information about online fraud and crimes occurring on their platforms.