How fin­an­cial ser­vices can stop deep­fake fraud scams

Akila Quino’s art­icle on deep­fake fraud (“Lenders pre­pare for deep­fake fraud wave”, Report, Janu­ary 20) high­lights why cus­tomer reim­burse­ment should only be one ele­ment of the fin­an­cial ser­vices sec­tor’s response to scams — pre­ven­tion and detec­tion are just as, if not more, import­ant.

Man­dat­ory reim­burse­ment policies — such as those com­ing in from Octo­ber — do play an import­ant role in redu­cing some of the fin­an­cial impact of fraud. But cus­tomer reim­burse­ment isn’t a sil­ver bul­let. It doesn’t expunge the emo­tional dis­tress that many scam vic­tims feel; it doesn’t stop money from scams reach­ing crim­in­als’ accounts; and nor does it pre­vent an erosion of trust in crit­ical ser­vices. Pre­ven­tion is the most effect­ive solu­tion here.

As crim­in­als look to exploit new tech­no­logy like arti­fi­cial intel­li­gence, it is vital that the response focuses on detec­tion and pre­ven­tion as well as reim­burse­ment — or else the scam num­bers will con­tinue to accel­er­ate. Moreover, cross-sec­tor col­lab­or­a­tion between fin­an­cial ser­vices firms, retail­ers, social media and eco­m­merce organ­isa­tions will be key to deliv­er­ing the con­sist­ent, joined-up approach to pre­ven­tion and detec­tion that gets the best res­ults for cus­tom­ers and soci­ety.

Pay­ing atten­tion to pre­ven­tion and detec­tion can stop fraud at its roots, halt the fund­ing of crim­inal enter­prises, and stop cus­tomer harm from occur­ring in the first place.

Emma Lov­ell
Chief Exec­ut­ive, Lend­ing Stand­ards Board
Lon­don EC2, UK