A global challenge requiring global solutions and operational collaboration
Scams have evolved into a global, industrialised form of crime. Criminal networks now operate across borders, exploiting communications networks, digital platforms, financial systems and emerging technologies to target consumers at unprecedented scale. Scammers also target people of all ages, professions and income levels, making fraud one of the most widespread threats facing consumers today.
Scams are executed across a range of services and technologies, not just traditional mobile messaging and voice services, but increasingly internet-based communications platforms, social media, digital payments, and digital platform environments.
No country is immune, and no single stakeholder can solve the challenge alone.
The heavy toll of scams
A fraudulent text message received in Arizona may originate from criminal groups operating in a different state or a different country, using infrastructure and digital tools that span multiple jurisdictions.
The financial impact continues to grow. Recent polling by Gallup estimates that Americans lost approximately $68 billion to scams in 2025, equivalent to around $186 million every day. While losses of this scale are concentrated in wealthier markets, some of the highest volume of scams are recorded in countries such as Brazil, Chile, India, Indonesia and Vietnam. The same transnational criminal networks often operate across both high-loss and high-volume scam markets, which is why no country can insulate itself through domestic measures alone.
The role of mobile operators
Mobile operators play a crucial role in protecting consumers from fraud. Working alongside regulators, technology providers, and law enforcement agencies, mobile operators across the world have invested heavily in tools designed to identify, block, and disrupt scams before they reach consumers.
Examples from the U.S. illustrate how these investments are strengthening consumer protection.
Robocall blocking and labelling tools
When a suspicious call is detected, operators can take a range of actions, including displaying warnings such as ‘Potential Scam’ or ‘Suspected Spam’ on the caller ID screen, diverting calls to voicemail or blocking them altogether.
Services such as Verizon’s Call Filter, AT&T’s ActiveArmor, and T-Mobile’s Scam Shield have become important components of the industry’s broader anti-scam efforts, helping U.S. consumers make more informed decisions about which calls to answer.
Protecting trusted brands from number spoofing
Another common scam tactic involves impersonating trusted organisations such as banks, government agencies, healthcare providers and customer service centres. By ‘spoofing’ legitimate phone numbers, scammers can make fraudulent calls appear genuine, increasing the likelihood that consumers will answer and trust the caller.
To tackle this challenge, U.S. mobile operators have partnered with analytics providers and technology vendors to deploy branded calling and rich call data services that help verify the identity of enterprise callers. These solutions allow legitimate organisations to authenticate their calls, making it easier for consumers to recognise trusted communications.
Calls that can be verified are delivered as normal, while those that cannot be authenticated may be flagged as suspicious or blocked. By helping distinguish legitimate callers from fraudsters, these services make it more difficult for scammers to spoof trusted numbers and strengthen consumer confidence in the calls they receive.
Three key lessons for more effective fraud prevention
Through ongoing collaboration with operators, policymakers, and law enforcement agencies worldwide, the GSMA has gained important insights into what works in combating scams, revealing key lessons that are applicable across countries and regions.
The measures implemented in the U.S. are not unique to one market, and they illustrate broader approaches that can help strengthen anti-scam efforts globally. Taken together, they point to three key lessons for governments, regulators, industry and law enforcement agencies seeking to combat fraud more effectively.
- Partnerships drive stronger scam prevention efforts
The first lesson that these examples illustrate is that while telecoms providers play a critical role in disrupting scams, they cannot address the challenge alone. Scams increasingly span multiple sectors and communications channels, requiring coordinated action across the broader digital ecosystem.
Cross-sector partnerships improve threat detection by enabling organisations to identify emerging scam techniques, share intelligence and disrupt fraudulent campaigns more quickly.
The GSMA supports this collaborative approach by bringing together mobile operators, technology companies, financial institutions, regulators and policymakers through initiatives such as the Fraud and Security Group (FASG), T-ISAC and Open Gateway. As the leading global mobile industry association, the GSMA also works with policymakers and regulators around the world to share industry expertise, promote effective policy frameworks and foster international cooperation to combat fraud and scams. Together, these efforts help accelerate information sharing, promote innovation and strengthen coordinated action across sectors and borders.
- Cross-border cooperation yields results
The Global Fraud Summit in March 2026, (an international summit convened by UNODC and INTERPOL to coordinate global action against fraud, scams and related organised criminal activity) delivered a clear message: fraud has become a systemic, transnational security threat. Addressing it requires more than procedural compliance, it demands faster operational responses, deeper international cooperation and a stronger focus on disrupting criminal activity. Effective action therefore depends on structured intelligence-sharing frameworks, coordinated investigations, joint enforcement operations and greater alignment between authorities.
By working closely with governments, regulators, industry, law enforcement agencies and international organisations, the U.S. is putting this approach into practice through the tracking of criminal networks, exchange of best practices and improvements in consumer protection.
No single country can solve this challenge unilaterally. Sustained and operational international cooperation remains critical to reducing fraud at scale and protecting consumers worldwide.
- Strengthening law enforcement
Industry efforts are most effective when paired with robust government enforcement. Effective anti-scam strategies require the active use of investigative powers, sanctions, service-disruption measures and coordinated cross-border operations.
Investigating and prosecuting transnational fraud operations is resource-intensive work.
The U.S. has made fighting transnational cybercrime and fraud a national priority. Policymakers should ensure that frontline agencies, like the FCC, FTC and Department of Justice, have the personnel, tools and resources needed to investigate and disrupt criminal networks effectively.
Conclusion
Scams are a global challenge that no organisation, sector or country can tackle alone. The GSMA is making scam prevention a shared global industry priority and the U.S. experience also demonstrates that progress depends on a combination of operator action, cross-sector collaboration, international cooperation and effective law enforcement. As fraudsters continue to exploit new technologies and operate across borders, coordinated action across the ecosystem will be essential to protecting all consumers and disrupting criminal networks.