We often talk about banks, telcos, and social media platforms collaborating, but their business models, speed of execution, and risk appetites are fundamentally different. What does an ‘unlikely alliance’ look like on an operational level when attempting to stop scams before they reach the consumer?
Scam journeys cross platforms from telco, to online tech, to financial services. Each part of that journey does not look like a scam until it does – if it did, firms would just block it. Organisations often see only one segment of the fraud journey; and the critical problem is that it all looks like normal activity until it doesn’t. Join it up, and organisations can spot risk and harm.
No one wants their customers to be scammed, but sectors operate differently, which makes working together challenging. They have different business models, operate within different regulatory frameworks and have different risk appetites for different activities.
Fraudsters exploit these differences.
We can fight back with unlikely alliance when organisations look beyond their own business and sector and fuse their insights with the wider fraud ecosystem. We combine insights, capabilities and perspectives to build a stronger collective defence.
Collaboration means sharing problems and creating trusted routes for that intelligence to be shared with a clear purpose. The focus is not on sharing more data per se, but on sharing information another organisation can act on. When that happens, organisations can identify threats earlier, intervene more effectively and make it harder for fraudsters to exploit the gaps between sectors.
How has the alliance between banks, telcos and tech giants shifted from passive data sharing to live scam disruption – and what’s the single most exciting development you’ll be sharing during your session?
Historically, much of the effort has been spent establishing whether data could be shared at all, rather than how it could be used to drive action across sectors.
The shift we’ve seen is from discussing collaboration to operationalising it. Banks, telcos and tech platforms are increasingly enabled to share intelligence through trusted channels with a clear purpose and business case, rather than sharing information for its own sake.
I’m most looking forward to discussing this with Lloyds Banking Group, a pioneering SSUK member. Bethan Wearmouth, Senior Manager of Fraud & Controls at Lloyds, will share insights on the heavy lifting it took for a major UK bank to make cross-sector data sharing operational.
I’m excited we will take people through Meta FIRE, one of the five Stop Scams UK data-sharing initiatives which Lloyds participates in. We’ll explain how cross-sector engagement transformed what began as a focused pilot, into a trusted exchange that supports fraud prevention across 13 organisations.
If our cross-sector alliances are successful in shutting down top-of-funnel social engineering and payment scams, where do you predict organised crime networks will shift?
We want to design scams out of UK industry and make UK the hardest place for scammers to operate. We don’t know where organised will go but we know they look for cheap and easy routes to access money and move it around.
Much of today’s fraud prevention relies on finding the signals that fraudsters leave behind across sectors and services. As we get better at joining those dots, criminals will naturally look for opportunities to operate in the gaps that remain.
That said, I’d be wary of pretending we know exactly what comes next. The more important question is whether we are building an ecosystem that can adapt when it arrives.
Fraudsters collaborate seamlessly across platforms, services and sectors. Our response must be equally joined up. A chain is only as strong as its weakest link, which is why strengthening both our systems and our collaboration routes matters most.
Criminals act at pace and are highly adaptable. Fortunately, they are not the only ones. By bringing together insights from across the ecosystem, we can identify new threats earlier, respond more effectively and make it harder for organised crime to find somewhere to hide.
About Mark Tierney
Mark Tierney is the Chief Executive of Stop Scams UK, the industry-led body pioneering cross-sector collaboration between finance, telcos, and tech firms.
With a background in digital transformation working across media and corporate landscape including the BBC and The Guardian, Mark has led Stop Scams UK through significant expansion since 2020. Mark is a vocal advocate for shifting the global fraud conversation from reimbursement to proactive prevention through shared intelligence and data-sharing.
Beyond his work in fraud prevention, he serves as a Board Trustee for Wilton’s Music Hall, the historic performing arts venue in London’s East End.
Pre-Event insights from Stop Scams UK ahead of the Fraud FS Summit
The Fraud FS Summit brings together senior fraud and financial crime professionals for a full day of presentations, panel discussions, interactive roundtables and networking; inclusive of 2 course lunch and drinks reception with canapés. Join the UK’s leading fraud conference in London, view the latest agenda for the Fraud FS Summit here.
