Australians could soon see fewer deepfake images of celebrities promoting fraudulent investments or being falsely depicted in criminal scenarios on social media. Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, has launched a new platform in partnership with Australian banks to tackle such scams. This initiative, dubbed the Fraud Intelligence Reciprocal Exchange (Fire), has already led to the blocking of 8,000 scam pages and the removal of 9,000 instances of celebrity scams in just its first six months.
From January to August 2024, Australians reported $43.4 million in losses to Scamwatch due to scams on social media, with nearly $30 million linked to fake investment schemes.
For years, Meta has faced increasing scrutiny from regulators and politicians over the prevalence of scams featuring deepfake images of public figures like David Koch, Gina Rinehart, Anthony Albanese, Larry Emdur, and Guy Sebastian, used to endorse investment scams. Mining magnate Andrew Forrest has even filed a lawsuit against the tech giant over its alleged failure to address fraudulent use of his likeness.
Announced on Wednesday, Meta’s collaboration with the Australian Financial Crimes Exchange (AFCX) aims to strengthen efforts against scams by establishing a direct communication channel between financial institutions and Meta. This system allows banks to report scams directly to Meta, while Meta shares details of scams it has identified with the banks involved.
The Fire platform is supported by seven major banks, including ANZ, Bendigo Bank, CBA, HSBC, Macquarie, NAB, and Westpac. It operates independently of AFCX’s Intel Loop service, which facilitates broader information sharing between financial institutions, telecommunications companies, and the National Anti Scams Centre. Since Fire’s pilot launch in April, 102 reports have been filed, leading to the removal of thousands of scam-related pages and fake celebrity endorsements across Facebook and Instagram.
While Fire shows promise, it is clear that much more needs to be done, especially given that 1,600 scam reports were filed in August alone, according to Scamwatch.
Globally, Meta took down 1.2 billion fake accounts in the last quarter, with 99.7% removed before they were reported by users.
Rhonda Luo, head of stakeholder engagement at AFCX, emphasized that the program’s goal is to reduce Australia’s attractiveness as a target for scammers. Meta’s director of global threat disruption, David Agranovich, pointed out that the Fire platform provides Meta with insights into scam activities occurring outside its platforms, allowing them to better track fraudulent activities across the ecosystem.
“This channel allows financial institutions to provide insights and intelligence that we as a platform may not and often do not see from scam activity that might be happening on those financial institutions’ services,” Agranovich said.
In addition to blocking fraudulent domains, Meta plans to grant Fire participants access to its threat exchange system, a tool the company uses to detect covert activities, child exploitation, and other criminal behaviors on its platforms.
“Scammers won’t stop. They’ll adapt and find new ways to circumvent our defenses, which is why continuous information sharing is so vital,” Agranovich added. He also acknowledged Australians’ frustration with the challenges of reporting scams to Meta, something the company is striving to improve.
“What we find is there’s a huge chunk of things that get taken down in an automated way… but there are still things that make it through,” Agranovich noted. “Signal sharing from partners like AFCX, banks, or users can help us understand where those systems are failing.”
The collaboration has already garnered positive feedback from Commonwealth Bank and ANZ, with both institutions welcoming the initiative.
Meanwhile, Australia’s assistant treasurer, Stephen Jones, has proposed draft legislation for a scam prevention framework that would hold banks, telcos, and social media platforms accountable for taking action against scams and ensuring proper resolution for victims. The consultation on this draft is set to conclude on October 4.
