Fraud is no longer just a financial crime – it’s a booming business with faster innovation cycles than most Fortune 500 companies. Scammers have scaled their operations to an unprecedented level, leveraging AI-generated deception, instant payment networks, and psychological manipulation to steal at record speed. Financial institutions and other consumer-facing businesses aren’t just facing financial losses; they’re staring down regulatory crackdowns, reputational damage, and a growing trust deficit with consumers and business customers who expect them to step up.
As outlined in Team8’s recently published Fraud Exposed Report, the game has changed. Fraudsters are no longer lone operators running phishing scams from their basements – they’re using deepfake audio, AI-generated phishing campaigns, and real-time payment networks to execute highly convincing, large-scale attacks. And the worst part? Most scams occur outside an institution’s security perimeter. They originate on social media platforms, dating apps, job websites, and online marketplaces that financial institutions don’t control. In the UK, 60% of UK scam cases in 2023 began on Meta platforms, including Facebook, Instagram, and Whatsapp. Their tactics include fraudulent emails, spoofed text messages, highly convincing phishing sites, and manipulated video calls. By the time a victim authorizes a payment, it’s already too late.
And the numbers are staggering: While $105 billion in scam-related financial losses have been reported to authorities in 2023, the Global Anti-Scam Alliance (GASA) estimates the real number is over $1 trillion. That’s more than the GDP of most countries – draining consumer wealth, undermining consumer and businesses trust in financial institutions, and compelling regulators to take action.
Beyond direct losses, financial institutions and other businesses that serve customers directly bear a significant operational burden – every fraud claim requires investigations, customer support, and regulatory reporting, all of which add up in cost and resources. With scams increasing in volume and complexity, organizations are spending more on fraud than ever before – yet still struggling to keep pace.
The $1 Trillion Problem Financial Institutions Can’t Ignore
Fraud isn’t just a cost of doing business, it’s a direct hit to customer trust, regulatory compliance, and brand reputation. Financial institutions today face a dual challenge: rising regulatory pressures and escalating reputational risk. In the UK, banks are now required to reimburse scam victims up to £85,000 per case, a cap introduced in October 2024 following regulatory pressure (The Telegraph, The Guardian). This policy shift, designed to enhance consumer protection, is influencing similar regulatory discussions worldwide.
Customer expectations have also changed. 65% of consumers believe banks should reimburse scam victims, with 34% stating “always” and 31% stating “most of the time” (FICO). Meanwhile, 75% of consumers say they would switch banks if they felt fraud protection measures were inadequate (Jumio).
Traditional fraud models, built to detect unauthorized transactions, are ineffective against scams where the customer willingly sends money to a fraudster or actively enables account access. This is the new battleground: fraud that exploits human vulnerabilities and exposures (HVEs) and psychology, not just technical weaknesses.
Introducing Charm Security: A New Playbook for Scam Prevention
Enter Charm Security, the first Customer Security Platform designed to help financial institutions and digital platforms protect their customers from scams, social engineering, and human-centric fraud.
Traditional fraud detection systems focus heavily on identity verification, ensuring that the person making a transaction is who they claim to be. But when it comes to scams, that’s not the right question to ask. In most fraud cases today, the victim is the legitimate account holder, but they’ve been manipulated into unknowingly transferring money to a scammer or actively enabling access to their account. Charm’s approach is different. Instead of relying on post-transaction analysis or traditional fraud detection tools, Charm operates at the human layer – before fraudsters get their hooks in.
Fraudsters, scammers and cyber criminals have shifted their main focus from breaking into systems to tricking people into opening the door – and offering them snacks. They impersonate loved ones, spoof emails from CEOs, and create deepfake videos to manipulate victims into willingly handing over money, data, or account access. That’s why Charm doesn’t just detect fraud, it provides organizations with comprehensive scam mitigation strategies, mapping Human Vulnerabilities and Exposures (HVEs) to assess each and every customer’s risk and to reduce that risk with personalized AI-driven awareness, tools and insights. Beyond awareness programs and AI-powered defenses, Charm can intervene in real-time to disrupt and prevent social engineering attacks before money is transferred.
Why Team8 is Partnering with Charm
At Team8, we don’t just invest in companies – we partner with exceptional entrepreneurs to help build them. We partnered with Charm’s founding team to tackle one of the fastest-growing threats in fraud prevention and to help close the growing gap between scam detection and real-time intervention.
Roy Zur, Charm’s CEO, is a third-time entrepreneur who previously founded Cybint (now ThriveDX) and has over 20 years of cyber intelligence experience, including 10 years of service in Israel’s elite Unit 8200. Avichai Ben, Charm’s CTO, is a leading expert in AI-driven fraud prevention, having developed fraud detection solutions for top-tier global banks while leading Data Science at Transmit Security. He has also led security innovation at Microsoft and contributed to top AI research conferences like NeurIPS.
With Roy and Avichai’s expertise and Team8’s track record in cyber and fintech, Charm is redefining scam prevention with a solution that moves fraud response from detection to real-time action.
Charm Security isn’t another fraud tool – it’s a new playbook. By fusing AI-driven psychological analysis with real-time intervention, Charm empowers financial institutions and digital platforms to preempt scams before they happen, closing the gaps fraudsters exploit. As scams grow more sophisticated, businesses can’t afford to play catch-up. With Charm, they don’t have to.
The Future of Fraud Prevention is Happening Now: A Team8 Vision
Scam tactics will continue to evolve, and real-time payment networks will make fraud faster and harder to reverse. Generative AI has already lowered the barrier to entry for sophisticated scams, and as deepfake technology improves, even seasoned professionals will struggle to distinguish real from fake.
This isn’t a future problem – it’s happening now.
At Team8, we believe that security is no longer just a technical challenge – it’s a business imperative. Financial institutions and other online platforms need fraud prevention solutions that are as dynamic as the threats they face. Charm Security provides exactly that: an AI-driven, human-centric defense system that prevents scams before they occur while protecting customer trust and ensuring compliance in a shifting regulatory landscape.
We’re proud to support Charm’s team as they bring this essential solution to market. Stay tuned as we continue to push the boundaries of what’s possible in fraud prevention.
