Banks Get Hit by Social Media

Scams on social media platforms; Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp are the source of more than one million cases of fraud every year according to an investigation.

A Money Mail investigation has found that an estimated 16 percent of all crimes recorded by the police in 2022 originated on platforms owned by social media giant Meta – more than double the number of robberies, burglaries, homicides, and knife crimes combined.

That means every day, an average of 3,000 people fall victim to a scam that can be traced back to one of these platforms.

Most lose thousands of pounds to crooks. More than £ 1.2 billion was stolen through fraud in 2022, according to banking trade body UK Finance.

From next year, banks will be forced to refund victims who have been tricked into sending money through ‘authorized push payment’ (APP) scams, in which a fraudster typically pretends to be a genuine organization or someone they know.

Every day, an average of 3,000 people fall victim to a scam that can be traced back to one of these platforms

At present, tech giants have no obligation to pay towards the cost of reimbursing victims who lose money after falling for scams originating on their platforms.

Official data sent to the Chancellor by UK Finance last month and seen by Money Mail shows that 61 percent of all cases of APP fraud originate on platforms owned by Meta.

Banking industry insiders have accused the social media giants of taking no responsibility for the consequences of fraud.

David Postings, chief executive of UK Finance, which represents more than 300 financial companies, singled Meta out in his letter to the Chancellor.

He said: ‘It is clear from the data that the biggest challenges sit with Meta. APP fraud causes psychological harm, financial loss, harm to our sector’s reputation, and damage to our economy.’

A Meta spokesman said: ‘With tens of millions of people in the UK using our apps daily, we recognize the important role we must play in tackling this industry-wide issue.

‘We don’t want anyone to fall victim to these criminals which is why we have systems to block scams. We encourage anyone who spots a scam to report it.’

It comes as Money Mail today launches a campaign to tackle the social media fraud epidemic and call on tech companies to do more to protect their users.

Users ought to engage with a lot of caution to avoid being prey to fraudsters who use social media to solicit and lure people into a trap.