Meta has announced the expansion of its information-sharing partnership with UK banks to combat fraud. The Fraud Intelligence Reciprocal Exchange (FIRE) program enables financial institutions to share intelligence directly with Meta, aiming to stop scammers and protect users. NatWest and Metro Bank are the first UK banks to join this pilot, with more expected to follow.

"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, Global Head of Counter-Fraud at Meta. "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 initiative has received support from various sectors, including the City of London Police and the National Economic Crime Centre. The initial pilot led to significant achievements, such as dismantling a concert ticket scam network targeting individuals in the UK and US. Data shared between NatWest, Metro Bank, and Meta resulted in removing approximately 20,000 scam accounts from 185 URLs during a six-month period.

David Lindberg, CEO of Retail Banking at NatWest, emphasized the importance of collaboration: "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."

Faisal Hussain, Chief Operating Officer at Metro Bank, added: "Scams are an industry-wide problem which require industry-wide solutions. We’ve been inspired by our work with Meta as an example of how we can all work together to protect consumers from faceless online fraudsters."

Adrian Searle, Director of the National Economic Crime Centre, highlighted the significance of data sharing: "The expansion of Meta’s scam reporting channel... demonstrates a willingness to help tackle the scourge of online fraud by bringing together data from across the bank and technology sectors."

Nik Adams, Temporary Assistant Commissioner at City of London Police, noted: "As national lead force for fraud... it is vital for the tech industry to help in the fight against online fraud."

Mark Tierney, CEO of Stop Scams UK, expressed optimism about FIRE's potential impact: "We’re delighted to see some of our member banks join Meta’s FIRE initiative... We believe FIRE could become a gamechanger for reporting fraudulent content."

Meta encourages users interested in learning more about scams and prevention tips to visit its Anti-Scam hub.