Meta is partnering up with U.K. banks to prevent scams on its platforms

Meta has announced that it is expanding its Fraud Intelligence Reciprocal Exchange (FIRE) program in the United Kingdom. With the help of the FIRE program, banks can share crucial intelligence with Meta about scams and fraudulent activities. The program includes Meta's platforms including Facebook, WhatsApp, and Instagram.

The primary goal of this data-sharing initiative is to enhance the detection and prevention of scams on Meta's platforms. By allowing banks to share intelligence directly with Meta, the company can improve its systems for identifying suspicious and fraudulent activities.

Nathaniel Gleicher, Meta's global head of counter-fraud, said in a statement:

“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. 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 FIRE program is an effort which is facilitated by Stop Scams UK, a cross-industry body focused on tackling online fraud. The program was initially launched as a pilot project with NatWest and Metro Bank and lasted for six months. During the pilot, Meta was able to successfully dismantle a major concert ticket scam network that targeted consumers in both the U.K. and the U.S. The operation led to the removal of around 20,000 scam accounts linked to 185 URLs provided by the participating banks.

The partnership comes in response to increasing pressure from U.K. banks for Meta to take more robust actions against fraudsters exploiting its platforms. In recent years, scams such as authorized push payment fraud have become quite common, where criminals deceive people into transferring money by impersonating legitimate businesses or individuals.

The banking sector has responded quite positively to this initiative. David Lindberg, CEO of Retail Banking at NatWest, stated:

“Spotting and stopping fraudsters before they are able to target customers is the best way to address this growing problem. 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.”

While NatWest and Metro Bank are currently the only banks involved in this program, Meta plans to onboard more banks and financial institutions in the near future.