Violet Vallaya
In a bold move to combat the rising tide of online fraud, a coalition named “Tech Against Scams” was announced Wednesday, uniting major players across social media, dating apps, financial institutions, and cryptocurrency platforms.
The coalition aims to tackle and prevent the growing threat of online scams that target consumers globally.
The coalition’s founding members include Coinbase, Match Group (parent company of Tinder and Hinge), Meta, Kraken, Ripple, Gemini, and the Global Anti-Scam Organization. “Tech Against Scams” will function as a central hub where these tech giants can collaborate, sharing best practices and threat intelligence to protect consumers and disrupt evolving financial scams.
“This coalition will serve as a force multiplier for security teams at tech companies to share threat insights and trends to enable more impactful disruptions of scam networks around the world,” said Guy Rosen, Chief Information Security Officer at Meta.
The collaboration began last summer when Match Group, Coinbase, and Meta initiated a first-of-its-kind cross-industry effort to address threats such as “pig butchering” scams, which involve long-term social engineering schemes to steal cryptocurrency. Recognizing the potential for broader impact, they extended an invitation to other companies across different sectors to join the fight against these sophisticated scams.
“Tech companies across industries collaborating with each other is essential for preventing criminal activity,” said Yoel Roth, VP, of Trust & Safety at Match Group. “As we work to make it harder for scammers to defraud people, we will also continue investing in new technologies to help disrupt fraud and scams faster, and get people the support and resources they need.”
Philip Martin, Chief Security Officer at Coinbase, emphasized the sophistication of modern fraud schemes: “Fraud schemes are becoming increasingly sophisticated, underscoring a greater emphasis on the importance of industry leaders coming together to tackle fraud and secure a safer digital environment for users.”
The coalition’s efforts will focus on three main areas: disrupting the tools used by scammers, educating consumers, and sharing threat intelligence among members. This includes creating new work streams to identify best practices and guiding collaborative efforts to prevent scams.
“As scams continue to become more convincing and intricate, bad actors are taking every opportunity to target and defraud innocent victims,” said Devraj Varadhan, EVP of Engineering at Ripple. “We must fight back and educate individuals on how to protect themselves from these predators.”
Brian Bruce, Chief of Operations at the Global Anti-Scam Organization, highlighted the global scale of the problem, noting that criminals are continually adapting and leveraging new technologies to scam victims worldwide. “We strongly believe that a multi-sector response with tech and financial companies is necessary to fight against this major transnational issue.”
