“It simply isn’t good enough” – Revolut calls for Meta to commit to sharing reimbursement of fraud victims 

Ellen Flannery  | 16 October, 2024
“It simply isn’t good enough” – Revolut calls for Meta to commit to sharing reimbursement of fraud victims 

Revolut, the global FinTech with over 45 million global customers, is calling on Meta to commit to sharing reimbursement of fraud victims, arguing that its recently announced data-sharing partnership with UK banks and financial institutions falls woefully short of what’s required to tackle fraud globally. 

Revolut recently released the second instalment of its Consumer Security and Financial Crime Report, disclosing exclusive scam and fraud insights from the first half of 2024. It showed that Meta platforms remain the main source of all scams reported to Revolut in H1 2024 (62%), with no significant change compared with H2 2023 (64%).  

Following the announcement that Meta is to launch a data-sharing partnership with UK banks and financial institutions to prevent fraud, Revolut is deeply concerned that the initiative does not address what’s required to tackle fraud: 

  • The emphasis is once again being placed on financial institutions to supply data on scams seen on Meta platforms, rather than Meta investing more to monitor their own sites. 
  • This initiative is only focused on the UK, when fraud is a global issue impacting consumers and businesses across many countries. 
  • Still no commitment to share in the reimbursement of victims defrauded on Meta platforms, despite the company potentially profiting from fake and fraudulent adverts.  

Revolut’s Head of Financial Crime, Woody Malouf, said: “These plans are baby steps, when what the industry really needs is giant leaps forward. What our latest report on financial crime shows is that social media platforms not only continue to enable fraud, but that the issue is just as bad today as it was last year. Victims and financial institutions still ultimately bear the cost. These platforms share no responsibility in reimbursing victims, and so they have no incentive to do anything about it. A commitment to data sharing, albeit needed, simply isn’t good enough. 

“We are confident in the steps the UK government is taking to tackle fraud, but what is urgently needed now is for Meta and other social media companies to commit to supporting victims of fraud in the same way financial institutions do. Their silence on this issue says it all.