Meta ‘must delete fake accounts’ to stop fraud, ClearBank boss says – UKTN

The boss of one of London’s biggest fintechs has joined the chorus of banks calling on Meta to ramp up its fraud prevention work.

Charles McManus, the CEO of ClearBank, which builds banking and payment infrastructure, called on the Facebook and Instagram owner to remove fake and clone accounts from its platform, thought to be responsible for a considerable share of fraud activity.

He told UKTN: “Everyone in the fraud chain has a role to play. The banks have invested more than £30bn now in fraud controls, which is absolutely right.

“The stats show that 78% of [push payment] fraud is online…at the moment 70% of that is originating in relation to Facebook and Meta. If you compare that to other platforms, they’re down at .05%.

“It shows it can be done and the government recognises that social media platforms should play their role and now there is a lot of pressure.”

The remarks come after the UK’s biggest fintech, Revolut, called on Meta to be financially liable for fraud after arguing that financial institutions are unfairly being given the responsibility to refund fraud victims. 

Revolut has blasted recent measures from Meta to tackle digital fraud as ‘baby steps’ after the social media firm unveiled an expanded partnership with UK banks.

“Reimbursement is another thing, but in just stopping fraud they must play their role and come to the table,” McManus said.

“They know a lot of those accounts are duplicates or fakes or not real. They could clean up the base set of accounts. With the control of dormant accounts and fake accounts you could do a lot, but they’re still live and operating.

“There are some brilliant tools out there…there’s no reason [not to], they’ve got the financial resources, investment and innovation to lead the way.”

The level of fraud in the UK more than doubled to £2.3bn in 2023, accounting firm BDO found, marking the second-biggest year for scams in the last two decades.

McManus added it was his understanding that Meta “have started to listen” and “are starting to do something about it.”

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