Meta: Instagram owner to expand UK bank data scheme in anti-fraud push

Meta is to partner with more UK banks for a data-sharing programme aimed at tackling fraud, as tech giants come under pressure to address a surge in scams on social media.

Natwest and Metro Bank were the first banks to participate in a six-month pilot of the scheme, which allowed them to share intelligence directly with Meta – facilitated by cross-industry body Stop Scams UK.

Meta, which owns Facebook, Whatsapp and Instagram, said that over the coming months it would onboard more banks to the programme, called the Fraud Intelligence Reciprocal Exchange (FIRE).

It added that the pilot had resulted in the takedown of a “significant concert ticket scam network attempting to target people in the UK and US” and the removal of around 20,000 accounts run by scammers from 185 URLs shared.

“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,” said Nathaniel Gleicher, Meta’s global head of counter-fraud.

“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 expansion of FIRE comes amid calls from UK banks and regulators for Big Tech to do more to crack down on rising fraud levels.

New rules from the Payment Systems Regulator (PSR) will force the industry to reimburse victims of authorised push payment (APP) fraud up to a limit of £85,000 per claim from 7 October.

The PSR reduced this cap from £415,000 last month after heavy lobbying and pressure from ministers.

Banks and fintechs have sounded the alarm that the rules place no liability on tech firms for the roughly three-quarters of APP fraud that starts online. TSB Bank found earlier this year that around a third of Facebook Marketplace listings could be scams.

Draft plans from Labour leaked before the general election show it arguing tech companies should be made liable for APP fraud reimbursement, although this is not an official policy position.

The party has considered giving statutory footing to the 2023 Online Fraud Charter, a voluntary agreement signed by the likes of Facebook, Google and Microsoft to prevent fraud.

The City of London Police and National Economic Crime Centre have welcomed Meta’s commitment to expand FIRE.

“We hope this expansion will rapidly increase Meta’s ability to act upon harmful content and to support the wider fight against fraud,” said Nik Adams, temporary assistant commissioner for the City of London Police.

Mark Tierney, chief executive of Stop Scams UK, said projects like FIRE could “lead to wider data sharing and improve reporting which is key to successfully tackling scams”.

APP fraud cost Britons £460m last year, according to banking trade body UK Finance.