【Down Town】

Scams are Down Towngetting more complex as artificial intelligence gets more advanced. That in mind, Meta launched a new Fraud Intelligence Reciprocal Exchange (FIRE) tool in Australia in an effort to cut down on the massive financial losses suffered by victims in the country.

Australia saw a rise in celebrity deepfakes pushing investment scams amid the ongoing crypto boom. Such scams used fake images of Aussie celebs like billionaire Gina Rinehart or TV personality Larry Emdur, the Guardiannoted. In some cases, as with a deepfake photo of animal activist Robert Irwin in handcuffs, the scams had a conspiratorial tone, as if law enforcement was trying to hide secret financial information from the public, and the celebrities wanted to bring it to light.

The FIRE tool is, effectively, a joint effort between Meta and banks to collect information on online scams. It has led to the blocking of 8,000 pages and 9,000 celebrity scams on Facebook in its first six months, the Guardianreported. Citing the Australian government service Scamwatch, Australians had reported $43.3 million — around $30 million USD — in losses from social media scams just from January through August,the Guardiansays.

Online scams are a growing problem in Australia and elsewhere. The Australian Competition & Consumer Commission reportedthat losses from social media scams rose 16.5 percent to $93.5 million — around $64 million USD — in the last year. The FIRE initiative is funded by Meta and run by Meta employees.

"Meta has an important responsibility to counter scams that target Australians on our apps," said David Agranovich, Policy Director, Global Threat Disruption at Meta, according to the news site News.com.au. "In addition to investing in our own tools and technology we are working with government and industry partners to fight this scourge. Scams often cut across multiple industries, and the [Australian Financial Crimes Exchange] have been an invaluable partner to help identify and take action against scams targeting Australians."

How to avoid scams online

Mashable has written quite a bit on how to avoid scams. But, in general, if you see a questionable image of, say, a celeb being taken away in handcuffs, it's best to verify. Be wary of unsafe links or of sharing financial information.

• 'Nobody is immune': Don't fall for a Bitcoin ATM scam
• 'Robot lawyer' a scam, FTC says in major AI crackdown
• An official OpenAI X account just got hacked by crypto scammers
• Scammers are using pictures of your home to amplify sextortion threats
• Guarding against fraud: Practical tips for recognising and avoiding scams

And always remain vigilant, because the scammers will too.

"Scammers aren’t going to stop their activities," Meta's Agranovich said, via the Guardian. "Once we've blocked them, they'll look for new ways to come back, new ways to get around our defensive, which is why continued information sharing like this is so critical."