Microsoft and Meta have joined the Global Signal Exchange (GSE), the world’s first global, multi-stakeholder and cross-sector clearing house for threat signals, as partners and data providers.

The GSE is a collaboration between Oxford Information Labs, Google and the Global Anti-Scam Alliance (GASA) to tackle online scams, fraud and abuse.

The tech giants join 30 global businesses in the network, which was launched last year.

The GSE enables partner organisations to collaborate and share data, using their scale to help stop online scams, fraud and abuse at a faster pace.

It currently contains over 320 million signals from 32 data providers, including Google, Spamhaus and Abusix.

According to GASA's 2024 Global State of Scams Report, the current annual cost of scams exceed $1.03 trillion globally, with this number rising.

This cost is equivalent to the UK's annual government spending and three times more than the estimated cost of ending world hunger by 2030.

"We believe that collaboration across sectors and borders is critical to disrupting malicious activity," said Chris Compton, director - outreach & governance, central fraud & abuse risk, Microsoft. "GSE will enhance our ability to work together with our fellow members to stop bad actors worldwide."

Nathaniel Gleicher, global head of counter fraud at Meta said that online scams are driven by "ruthless cross-border criminal networks" using sophisticated tactics to abuse platforms.

"We need platforms, banks, governments, law enforcement, domain name systems and telecoms to work together to stop these actors, and we're committed to doing our part," continued Gleicher. "This is why we are building on our long standing work with the GSE to share intelligence and help protect people from these criminals."

He added that the company is also rolling out tech to "aggressively enforce against scams," including testing the use of facial recognition technology.

Emily Taylor, co-founder of the GSE said: "The level of global support for the Global Signal Exchange signifies a step-change in the fight against online crime, as we facilitate a new culture of co-operation and data sharing. Scammers work together, they share and they move quickly, which means the days are long-gone when individual brands can tackle online crime alone. The GSE marks a new chapter in the collective fight-back against online crime."

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