TSB calls on Meta to make ‘urgent’ interventions on fraud or consumers risk losing up to £250m
TSB Bank has called on Meta to make urgent interventions to protect consumers from spiralling levels of fraud with customers at risk of losing hundreds of millions of pounds.
According to current industry projects, consumers could lose up to £250m from Meta platforms in 2023 without action from the tech giant.
Earlier this year, TSB data showed that fraud instigated through content on Meta accounts for 80 per cent of fraud cases within TSB’s three biggest fraud categories.
Similarly, Lloyds data showed that two-thirds of all online shopping scams affecting UK consumers start on Meta-owned platforms with someone falling victim to a scam every seven minutes.
Paul Davis, director of fraud prevention, TSB, said: “Meta needs to face up to its responsibility: it has a duty of care to the millions of customers who use its platforms, which is all the more important when we see innocent people lose life-changing sums every day.”
In a letter to Meta, TSB chief executive Robin Bulloch outlined a range of measures Meta should take in order to clamp down on the problem.
He said the firm should introduce a secure payment mechanism for Facebook Marketplace. Currently Marketplace transactions do not go through a recognised payment system so transactions can take place directly from a victim to a fraudster.
Bulloch also suggested Meta should stop unregulated firms advertising on Facebook and Instagram as well as issue a clear commitment to investigate and remove potentially fraudulent content within 24 hours.
Meta says it already has systems in place to block scams and noted that advertisers had to be authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) to appear on their sites.
A spokesman for Meta said: “This is an industry-wide issue and scammers are using increasingly sophisticated methods to defraud people in a range of ways including email, SMS and offline.
“We don’t want anyone to fall victim to these criminals which is why our platforms already have systems to block scams, financial services advertisers now have to be FCA authorised to target UK users, and we run consumer awareness campaigns on how to spot fraudulent behaviour,” they continued.
TSB’s letter comes amid a “fraud epidemic” in the UK. According to figures from UK Finance, over £1.2bn was stolen by scammers last year making the UK the “fraud capital of the world”.
Banks have urged big tech firms to take greater action to clamp down on fraud in recent months. Recently the financial sector united with big tech to launch a Stop Scams scheme to investigate how fraudsters operate.