Hosting fraud on your platform is bad for your business. So on Tuesday, a group of major technology companies including Match Group, Meta, Coinbase and others joined together to launch a new coalition to combat online fraud across dating apps, social media and cryptocurrencies. .
A new coalition, Tech Against Scams, will work together to find ways to counter the tools used by scammers and better educate the public against financial fraud.
Romance scams have been costing users millions of dollars even before series like “The Tinder Swindler.” According to the Federal Trade Commission, as of 2019, this type of fraud costs victims more than any other type of consumer fraud. Social media fraud is also a problem. In 2021, US consumers lost $770 million to social media fraud. Last year, the FTC reported that investment fraud cost consumers more than $3.8 billion, more than double the amount lost in 2021.
And of course, there is the crypto industry. The industry is rife with fraud, and company founders and other industry figures have been jailed for crimes such as fraud, corruption, money laundering, and hacking. In fact, an entire blog has been set up just to track the latest influences in this field.
Although this fraud is perpetrated on the platform rather than by the platform itself (well… outside of cryptocurrencies), allowing it to run rampant could give tech companies a bad name. Additionally, many scams cross platforms, for example, a dating app scam may ultimately lead users to a cryptocurrency exchange. Therefore, there is a growing demand for improved data sharing between companies to address this issue.
Meta, Coinbase and Match (parent company of Tinder, Hinge and others) will be joined by other cryptocurrency industry players such as Kraken, Ripple and Gemini. Together, the companies plan to work together to protect users from romance scams and other types of scams, such as the cryptocurrency scam known as “pig slaughter.” The latter is a long-running investment scam in which victims are lured into making investments in virtual currency. Scammers target users on social apps, often befriending and building trust through communication before stealing their funds.
The advent of AI is also making it harder to detect the difference between a scam and a real-life interaction. As Yahoo Finance reported last year, scammers are using AI to create “convincing FaceTime calls, phone calls and emails” to victims, potentially posing as loved ones, prospective lovers, friends or even IRS employees.
“To prevent criminal activity, it is essential that technology companies from different industries collaborate with each other, and ultimately online platforms will take the lead and develop effective solutions to We can take action against crime,” said Yoel Roth, Vice President of Trust and Safety at Match Group. And I used to belong to Twitter. “We aim to make it harder for fraudsters to defraud online users, and we continue to invest in features that help stop fraud and remove fraudsters from our platforms before they can cause any harm. I will do it.”
Guy Rosen, chief security officer at Meta, added that both companies need to work together to seriously address this issue. “Scammers and organized crime groups behind pig slaughter schemes target people through many internet services, making it difficult for any one company to see the full picture of malicious activity, and We expect each of us to operate in silos,” he pointed out.
Both companies share tips and information with each other to protect users from fraud on their respective platforms. They will collaborate on ways to educate and protect consumers from the ever-evolving financial fraud in the marketplace. Coalition members will also work with law enforcement agencies as needed to support investigations by sharing information about online fraud and crimes that occur on the platform.