Feedzai calls for collaboration as US loses $159bn to scams

Nearly one quarter of Americans have fallen victim to a scam over the past 12 months, as the rise of fraud cost the US $159 billion in one year alone, according to new research.

The 2023 State of Scams report, published by Feedzai in partnership with the Global Anti-Scam Alliance (GASA), found that 23% of Americans parted with their money after being targeted by scammers.

This is despite 69% saying they felt confident in their ability to spot a scam before it reached that stage.

The research revealed that Gmail and Facebook are the biggest sources of threat, with 53% and 52% of respondents, respectively, identifying these platforms as the ones on which most scammers tried to contact them last year.

However, other online channels posed a risk, including Instagram (22%), WhatsApp (16%) and Google (17%).

Nuno Sebastião, co-founder and chief executive officer of Feedzai, said: “More should be done to both protect and reimburse victims of fraud, and it’s true that banks and financial institutions play a big role here, but this responsibility cannot solely fall on their shoulders.”

He called for “a collaborative approach” and urged big tech companies, regulators, software providers and consumers to “work together to put measures in place from all angles”.

“Using technology that can continuously provide customer-centric risk-scoring, as well as biometric and behavioural pattern analysis, we can learn each consumer’s unique approach and use it to more effectively identify suspicious activity – we can prevent scams before they even happen, and without the consumer even realising,” he added.

Jorjj Abraham, managing director at GASA, agreed that technology is the only way to tackle the problem.

“If we combine cutting-edge tech that prevents scams before they happen with an approach in which we’re not afraid to work together to share insights and knowledge around scams, we can tackle the alarming statistics revealed in our research,” Abraham added.

Feedzai reported that 73% of those surveyed encountered a scam at least once a month, while 15% encountered one every day.

Victims in the US typically lose an average of $2,663 to scammers, amounting to 0.6% of total US GDP.

Further reading: Total UK fraud losses declined in 2022 but ‘risks remain elevated’