LocationsTaking Stock and Charting Ahead: Global Coalition Against Digital Scams
May 21, 2025
Collage of the various discussions and engagements that culminated in the Anti-Scam Handbook v2.0
The United Nations Global Digital Compact represents a landmark consensus among world leaders, charting a roadmap for global collaboration to harness the potential of digital technologies to accelerate the Sustainable Development Goals for the betterment of people and the planet.
The Compact also recognized the need to address cyber risks and support developing countries, ensuring no one is left behind. Scams represent a serious and growing cyber risk, with estimated annual global financial losses exceeding $1 trillion, or more than 1% of global GDP, disproportionately impacting developing countries.
Scams are also a “wicked problem” – multifaceted, difficult to define, and even harder to solve. Fraudsters operate in a complex global-local system, spanning across digital infrastructure, financial systems, and social platforms, but also exploit human psychology, vulnerabilities, and socio-economic challenges. Tackling digital scams therefore requires a collective and coordinated response at all levels.
Our Coalition-Based Approach
UNDP responded swiftly to convene a global coalition in mid-2024 to confront the challenge setting back development gains. Mastercard joined from the onset as the first partner, underscoring its commitment and the importance of public-private collaboration, while the coalition continued expanding to 12 organizations across the public sector, industry, academia, and civil society¹.
Collaborating in a fast and agile manner, the coalition’s ambition has been to effect five shifts in the way scams are thought about and responded to:
Developing Strategies and Tools for Collective Response
The coalition’s work in 2024 culminated in the Anti-Scam Handbook v1.0 launched at the Global Anti-Scam Summit Asia highlighting these key outputs:
- Addressing Knowledge Gaps on the challenges and risks facing developing countries and vulnerable communities, including the severe human and societal implications often overlooked.
- Strategic Sensemaking Framework to visually map the problem for a comprehensive and multifaceted view, allowing actors to ‘see’ themselves in the solutioning space.
- Toolkit for Collective Action across multiple domains and intervention areas where different actors can bring their assets, tools, and resources to support action against scams.
Fostering Widespread Collaborations
Keeping with a bias towards action and collaboration, the coalition has engaged widely with more than 50 countries and organizations over the past six months, through workshops in Cambodia and Singapore applying the framework and toolkit, as well as learning from mutual experience sharing at the Pacific Digital Democracy Summit and INTERPOL Operation HAECHI V Meeting.
Launching Anti-Scam Handbook v2
The coalition is delighted to launch the Anti-Scam Handbook v2, incorporating substantive feedback received from diverse stakeholders across various forums. Three key themes have emerged from these new insights on the complex dynamics of digital scams.
Technology Arms Race. The rapid digital evolution has intensified the arms race between scammers and defenders. Scammers are leveraging generative artificial intelligence (AI) to create deepfake videos and voices, AI-driven phishing for highly personalized attacks, and machine learning to automate credential stuffing at scale. These innovations, coupled with AI-powered chatbots and social media scraping tools, have significantly lowered barriers for scams, enabling operations with unprecedented reach and sophistication. Cryptocurrencies, synthetic identity fraud, and advertising bots further amplify the challenge by enhancing anonymity and efficiency.
Conversely, defenders are also deploying advanced countermeasures, such as AI-driven security systems to analyze large datasets, behavioral biometrics for identity verification, and blockchain analytics to disrupt illicit activities. Examples include Mastercard’s AI-powered fraud detection system, which helps identify real-time payment scams before funds leave a victim’s account, and Singapore’s Scam Analytics and Tactical Intervention System (SATIS), which automates the detection, analysis, and disruption of malicious websites.
Despite these advancements, defenders often face resource constraints and lag in adoption, leaving them vulnerable in this rapidly evolving landscape. Moreover, resource-limited countries face significant barriers in accessing the latest tools and resources, highlighting the urgent need for global collaboration to bridge the technological divide and ensure equitable defences against digital threats.
Interconnected Web of Digital Scams and Cyber Threats. Digital scams are not only becoming more sophisticated but also increasingly interconnected. Phishing schemes, for instance, often serve as gateways to more severe cyber threats like ransomware attacks, where malicious links both harvest credentials and deploy malware to lock victims out of their systems. Similarly, fake online stores involved in e-commerce fraud collect payment details and personal information, which can then be used for identity theft. Such overlaps blur the boundaries between scam types, complicating detection and mitigation efforts. A single incident can cascade into multiple forms of exploitation, amplifying harm for victims.
Furthermore, scams are closely interconnected with broader cyber threats that present challenges to the trust and security of the overall digital ecosystem. Misinformation and disinformation campaigns distort public discourse and exploit vulnerable populations, while cyberviolence – including technology-facilitated gender-based violence and online harassment – undermines personal safety. These threats diminish public confidence in digital platforms, institutions, and authorities, which is critical for reporting scams and ensuring effective responses. Data breaches and privacy violations further erode trust, creating an environment where victims are less likely to seek help, and mitigation efforts face greater resistance. Together, these interconnected issues amplify the complexity of digital scams and highlight the urgent need for integrated, trust-building strategies to safeguard the digital ecosystem.
Impetus for Collaboration. The complexities above underscore the urgent need for a collaborative global response against digital scams. Promising progress is being made through various initiatives, such as the Global Fraud Summit communique 2024, new ASEAN Working Group, UNODC’s Organized Fraud Issue Paper and the Legislative Guide, among others.
Yet, much more remains to be done, especially to support developing countries and vulnerable communities that are most impacted by digital scams but have the least resources to defend against bad actors.
Charting Ahead Together
Our global coalition against digital scams will continue building on this work in 2025 to advance collective responses across global, regional, and local levels in a fast and agile manner, broadly along these lines:
We welcome collaborations with partners who share our commitment to contributing tools, resources, and capabilities to support more countries and communities, while deepening our data and research base for more effective and pre-emptive responses.
Together, we can advance this work on one of the most pressing cyber challenges of our time, to build a safer and more inclusive digital ecosystem for all.
¹ United Nations Development Programme, United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, International Criminal Police Organization, Mastercard, ThinkPlace, National University of Singapore, Global Anti-Scam Alliance, Global Coalition to Fight Financial Crime, National Australia Bank, ANZ Bank, IDCARE, Australian Institute of Professional Intelligence Officers