The need for coordination across borders and sectors is well understood, although regulators and tech firms clashed over how to best tackle scams at source
The GSMA introduced the event by highlighting some existing scam prevention frameworks in the telecoms sector
From 26-27 March 2025, the Global Anti-Scam Alliance (GASA) held its global summit in London, bringing together experts from key sectors, including telecoms, tech and financial services. The summit opened with introductory speeches from government officials from the UK and abroad, as well as from industry leaders such as Vivek Badrinath (Director General Designate, GSMA) who highlighted three unique approaches to preventing scams taken by the telecoms industry:
In India, Airtel used AI and network data analytics to build a spam identification model that works in real time by processing data points of billions of SMS messages and phone calls, flagging 8bn scam calls and 800m scam SMS messages in just two and half months;
In Brazil, Claro, TIM and Vivo created a common set of application programming interfaces (APIs), which the banking industry could then use to check for fraudulent SIM card swapping; and
After approximately £460m was lost to authorised push payments fraud in 2023 in the UK, mobile operators created a collaborative framework with the banking sector, enabling them to co-create new fraud solutions.
Regulators must step up and speed up their approaches to scam prevention
At the event’s regulation-focused panel, speakers agreed that cooperation and coordination across sectors, government and regulators would be key to establishing effective scam prevention regimes. Natalie Black (Group Director, Networks and Communications, Ofcom) explained that although the majority of scams originate online, telecoms is the most impacted sector. It was here that she discussed her plans to unify Ofcom’s powers in both telecoms and broader online activities to more effectively tackle scams. Black also flagged that Ofcom will soon consult on measures relating to SMS scams and phone number spoofing, but offered no preview of what that might entail. However, Rocio Concha Galguera (Director - Policy and Advocacy & Chief Economist, Which?) was quick to point out that Ofcom is moving too slowly, focusing on how the Online Safety Act (OSA) has still not yet been fully implemented. Panellists all also agreed that a new approach to data and intelligence sharing was required to fight scams across borders and industries, with some considering that the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is currently restricting efforts.
Big tech clashed with regulators and governmental bodies over how best to tackle scams and fraud
Throughout the day, regulators such as Black and Johannes Vallesverd (Senior Advisor, Nkom) tended to view the root of the problem slightly differently to those from the tech industry. Black and Vallesverd were keen to highlight how the private sector, particularly tech firms, could step up its game in stopping criminals engaging in fraudulent activities. In contrast, Jean-Jacques Sahel (Policy Lead, Asia Pacific Information and Global Telecommunications, Google) made the point that scams are rooted in large, financially powerful criminal organisations, and that the ultimate goal of industry and regulators should be to identify these groups. Speaking on more than one panel, Sahel argued consistently that in order for industry, regulators and governments to coordinate on scam prevention, the public sector would need to make changes to regulation and legislation before the private sector could also play its part. However, in one of the summit’s afternoon workshops, Andy White (CEO, Australian Payments Network (AusPayNet) and Member - Advisory Board, National Anti-Scam Centre) disagreed with this suggestion, calling for more countries to adopt legislation like Australia’s Scam Prevention Framework, which he argued would incentivise firms in the telecoms, tech and banking sectors to quickly increase efforts to prevent scams by obliging them to do so.
The centre for cybersecurity in Belgium has adopted a fully automated anti-phishing programme to flag scams in partnership with ISPs
At the final workshop of the summit’s first day, representatives from the Center for Cybersecurity Belgium gave detailed speeches on how they had established an effective new system to combat scams. The Belgian Anti-Phishing Shield (BAPS) crowdsources data on potential scams by asking the public to forward any emails that may be scams to the Centre for Cybersecurity Belgium. The centre has since been receiving around 25,000 emails a day, all of which are handled by an automated system, which identifies emails containing potentially dangerous URL links. By partnering with major telecoms operators such as Orange, Proximus, Telenet and VOO, the system flags these links, meaning that when a user then tries to click one, they are taken to a warning page by their ISP. Miguel De Bruycker (Managing Director General, Center for Cybersecurity Belgium) and Brecht Vercruyce (Application Developer, CERT.be) explained that although the system can at times be slow, it has been effective and cost-efficient due to its fully automated nature. Other panellists and audience members were keen to praise this system, calling for cybersecurity agencies in other countries to look into actioning similar systems.
