Following research by Which? that found three in five people received fake delivery company texts over the last year, Industry Leaders commented below.
<p>All too often, industry experts are quick to blame consumers for “falling” for scams – but this blame game needs to stop. The onus should be on technology and finance organisations to step up to the challenge. With the right technologies in place, digital service providers – messaging apps, mobile manufacturers, email providers, or mobile networks – could warn us when a suspicious link or message is shared. </p>
<p>Which? found that 79% of people who received fake delivery scam texts realised they were fake straight away. But this means 1 in 5 people didn’t. Often, you might not notice a dubious link, or the unknown number it’s sent from – but your phone, messaging service, or network could. A simple flag (‘This link could be fraudulent’) would go a long way to protecting consumers. And all it takes is AI and machine learning algorithms that are trained to spot scams before they reach the consumer. </p>
<p>In the future, technologies like behavioural biometrics could be used to track fraudsters’ behaviour and movements around the web, to build a digital footprint of their activity and figure out if they’re really who they say they are. Legislation also plays a role, and initiatives like the UK’s Online Safety Bill are a welcome step forward. For now, however, we have to rely on the tools we already have at our disposal – and use them to stamp out scams before they hit our phones.</p>
<p>All too often, industry experts are quick to blame consumers for “falling” for scams – but this blame game needs to stop. The onus should be on technology and finance organisations to step up to the challenge. With the right technologies in place, digital service providers – messaging apps, mobile manufacturers, email providers, or mobile networks – could warn us when a suspicious link or message is shared. </p>
<p>Which? found that 79% of people who received fake delivery scam texts realised they were fake straight away. But this means 1 in 5 people didn’t. Often, you might not notice a dubious link, or the unknown number it’s sent from – but your phone, messaging service, or network could. A simple flag (‘This link could be fraudulent’) would go a long way to protecting consumers. And all it takes is AI and machine learning algorithms that are trained to spot scams before they reach the consumer. </p>
<p>In the future, technologies like behavioural biometrics could be used to track fraudsters’ behaviour and movements around the web, to build a digital footprint of their activity and figure out if they’re really who they say they are. Legislation also plays a role, and initiatives like the UK’s Online Safety Bill are a welcome step forward. For now, however, we have to rely on the tools we already have at our disposal – and use them to stamp out scams before they hit our phones.</p>