Meta, Match, Coinbase and others team up to fight online fraud and crypto scams

Hosting fraud on your platform is bad for business; That’s why on Tuesday a group of major tech companies, including Match Group, Meta, Coinbase and others, are jointly launching a new coalition to combat online fraud in dating apps, social media and crypto. .

The new coalition, Technology Against Fraud, will work together to find ways to combat the tools used by fraudsters and better educate the public about financial scams.

Even before shows like “The Tinder Swindler,” romance scams were costing users serious amounts of money. According to the U.S. Federal Trade Commission, this type of fraud cost its victims more money than any other type of consumer fraud as of 2019. Fraud on social media is also a problem: US consumers lost $770 million to social media fraud in 2021. Last year, the FTC also reported that investment scams resulted in consumer losses of more than $3.8 billion, more than double the amount lost in 2021.

And of course there is crypto; An industry so rife with fraud that company founders and other industry notables will go to jail for fraud and fraud, money laundering, hacking, and more. In fact, a whole blog was opened just to follow the latest developments in this field.

Although this fraud happens on platforms rather than being carried out by the platforms themselves (well… outside of crypto), allowing it to run rampant could give tech companies a bad reputation. Moreover, most scams involve platforms; For example, a dating app scam might end up redirecting the user to a crypto exchange. This has led to increased demand for better data sharing between companies to help combat the problem.

Meta, Coinbase, and Match (the parent company of Tinder, Hinge, and others) are joined by others in the crypto space such as Kraken, Ripple, and Gemini. Together, the firms plan to work to protect their users against romance scams and other types of fraud, such as crypto scams known as “pork butchering.” The second is a long-term scam involving investment fraud, where the victim is persuaded to make crypto investments. The scammer often targets users on social apps, befriending them or building trust through communication before stealing their money.

With artificial intelligence, it becomes harder to detect the difference between scams and real-life interactions. As Yahoo Finance reported last year, scammers are using artificial intelligence to create “convincing FaceTime calls, phone calls and emails” to their victims in which they can pose as loved ones, future lovers, friends or even IRS agents.

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“Tech companies across industries collaborating with each other is crucial in preventing criminal activity, ultimately helping online platforms stay ahead, develop effective solutions, and address various types of financial crime,” said Yoel Roth, Match Group VP of Trust and Security. and former Twitter: “Just as we aim to make it harder for fraudsters to defraud users online, we will also continue to invest in features that help block fraud and remove fraudsters from our platform before they can cause harm.”

Meta Security Officer Guy Rosen added that companies need to join forces to fully tackle this problem. “The scammers and organized crime groups behind pig slaughtering schemes are targeting people across many internet services, making it difficult for any company to see the full picture of malicious activity and trust that each of us is working in silos,” he said.

Companies will 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 against ever-evolving financial fraud products in the marketplace. Coalition members will also continue to work with law enforcement to support their investigations by sharing information about online fraud and crimes occurring on their platforms when necessary.