Defining Scams Properly and Communication Challenges

One of the main challenges in combating scams is properly defining them. Romance, investment, and impersonation scams can take many forms and arrive through a wide range of channels.

Another critical issue is communication. A financial institution may uncover and address a scam affecting one of its customers, but upon further examination, that incident may be just one part of a global campaign orchestrated by a fraud ring.

The Global Anti-Scam Alliance Launches Scam.org

To address both challenges, the Global Anti-Scam Alliance (GASA) is launching scam.org, a platform that offers resources including scam education, reporting tools, prevention guidance, and victim support. The platform will be AI-powered through integration with OpenAI and has secured buy-in from many of the world’s leading cybersecurity firms.

“This is a meaningful partnership and highlights the great work GASA is doing,” said Tracy Goldberg, Director of Cybersecurity at Javelin Strategy & Research. “A relatively new entrant, GASA has made significant strides over the last 18 to 24 months to bring the global community together to address social-engineering risks.”

An Agnostic Threat

This industry-wide approach has become increasingly necessary as scams continue to spiral out of control. Recent data from BioCatch found that respondents reported a 65% year-over-year increase in the total number of scams between 2024 and 2025. These scams are becoming agnostic, targeting industries, demographics, and platforms with equal ardor.

This threat would not be able to reach such scale without two factors: technology and organization. Criminals can now use AI to make their communications appear more legitimate, while the cloud model has enabled the rise of cybercrime-as-a-service operations.

For example, the Tycoon 2FA phishing toolkit was sold as a subscription service on social media. The toolkit was recently taken down but not before playing an integral role in more than 100,000 breaches across a variety of organizations.

An Overarching Approach

Taking down Tycoon2FA required a coordinated global effort between law enforcement, technology companies, and cybersecurity firms. A similarly broad approach will likely be required to quell the threat of scams.

Scam.org can play a key role by facilitating data-sharing and communication that will be critical to that fight. The platform will also give consumers a resource they can turn to at a time when many scam victims feel isolated and powerless. Ultimately, however, its success may depend on whether consumers are willing to report what happened to them.

“While the mobile app security features included in Scam.org are notable, consumers will still be expected to make decisions about what is suspicious and what is not,” Goldberg said. “Ultimately, helping consumers remove their mobile numbers from robocall lists and protect and remove their compromised PII on and from the dark web will be the only solution that stops SMS-based, smishing scams.”