As holiday shopping ramps up, so too do the opportunities for online fraud. From seemingly irresistible deals to sophisticated scams, consumers face a growing challenge in distinguishing the genuine from the deceptive. Ensuring trust in mobile commerce requires coordinated action across the industry. MEF Director of Programmes, Nicholas Rossman, discusses how the mobile ecosystem is rising to meet this challenge.
As a teenager, my favourite sitcom was WKRP in Cincinnati, a show about the well-meaning but befuddled staff of a struggling radio station.
One episode stands out vividly: the Thanksgiving special. In a misguided promotion, Station Manager Mr. Carlson launches live turkeys from a helicopter, genuinely believing they could fly. His famous line, “As God is my witness, I thought turkeys could fly,” always made me laugh. I used to think no one in real life could be that naive.
It is easy to laugh at a sitcom character from the safety of a living room. But in the real world, the joke is often on us, and it is far from funny. Modern fraudsters are master storytellers. They do not rely on us being foolish; they rely on sophisticated social engineering to make the impossible—like a free latest-model smartphone or a 90% discount—seem entirely plausible. They create a momentary reality where turkeys really can fly, and by the time we realize gravity still applies, the damage is done.
Black Friday is not just a retail event; it is the Super Bowl for fraudsters. The volume of attacks during this period is staggering. According to data from the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) and Action Fraud, UK shoppers lost over £11.5 million to online criminals between November 2023 and January 2024 alone. ”
Because these scams operate across borders and networks, no single company can fight them alone. This is where the Mobile Ecosystem Forum (MEF) steps in—not just as an observer, but as the convening force for the industry. We bring together fierce competitors—mobile operators, aggregators, and tech providers—to share intelligence and build a united defense. Our goal is to ensure that while turkeys might not fly, the mobile ecosystem remains grounded in trust.
The Crash Site: Counting the Cost
In WKRP, the damage was limited to a smashed car window and a lot of feathers. In our industry, the “crash site” is global, and the damage is measured in billions.
Black Friday is not just a retail event; it is the Super Bowl for fraudsters. The volume of attacks during this period is staggering. According to data from the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) and Action Fraud, UK shoppers lost over £11.5 million to online criminals between November 2023 and January 2024 alone. That is not just loose change; the average loss per victim was nearly £700.
The “turkeys” in this scenario—the fake deals—are dropping faster than ever. Lloyds Bank analysis found that purchase scams surge by 29% around Black Friday. These aren’t just clumsy attempts; they are targeted strikes. Just as Mr. Carlson thought he was creating a spectacle, fraudsters are creating a spectacle of legitimate-looking commerce.
But this seasonal spike is just a symptom of a chronic condition. When we zoom out, the numbers are sobering. According to the Mobile Ecosystem Forum’s (MEF) Anti-Fraud Yearbook 2024, global fraud losses reached an estimated $1.026 trillion in 2023. To put that in perspective, that is roughly 1.05% of global GDP lost to the “crash.”
Furthermore, MEF’s 10th Annual Consumer Trust Study highlights the human cost: 47% of consumers reported receiving spam texts in the last year, while 38% specifically reported receiving fraudulent messages. This constant bombardment erodes trust, making users wary of even legitimate mobile engagement.
So, who is piloting the chopper? It isn’t a befuddled station manager. Today’s fraud is driven by organized crime syndicates equipped with enterprise-grade technology. They are leveraging Artificial Intelligence to polish their scripts, removing the typos and grammatical errors that used to be the tell-tale signs of a scam. They are using automation to scale their attacks, ensuring that for every savvy shopper who spots the trap, thousands more are put at risk.
The Rescue Team: A United Front
In the sitcom, the “rescue” was just Mr. Carlson running away from an angry crowd. In reality, the rescue requires a sophisticated, coordinated defense. This is where the industry is fighting back, moving from reactive firefighting to proactive prevention.
The cornerstone of this defense is the MEF’s Best Practices to Enable Trusted Business Messaging. This isn’t just a set of suggestions; it is a blueprint for a harmonized global defense. The philosophy is simple but powerful: fraud ignores borders, so our defense must be equally borderless. We are building a cross-sector coalition where mobile operators, regulators, law enforcement, and industry associations like MEF work as a single unit.
The most visible part of this fight for the consumer is the protection of “Sender IDs.” The Sender ID is the name that appears on your phone screen—it is the digital equivalent of a pilot’s uniform. Fraudsters have long exploited this, dressing up their scams in the uniforms of trusted banks or delivery companies.
Under the new best practices, we are implementing rigorous “Right-To-Use” (RTU) checks. Before a brand can send a message, they must prove they are who they say they are. It is a strict “verify, then trust” model. We are effectively grounding the fake pilots before they can even take off.
However, verifying a sender in one country is not enough if they can simply hop to a network in a neighboring region to launch their attack. This is why MEF emphasizes “Global Registry Coordination”. By harmonizing requirements across different markets and sharing intelligence between national registries, we shrink the hiding spots for bad actors.
This initiative represents a fundamental shift. We are creating a chain of trust that includes everyone from the brand sending the message to the operator delivering it. It ensures that when a Black Friday deal lands in your inbox, it is a genuine offer, not a turkey in disguise.
Grounding the Turkeys
In the final moments of that famous WKRP episode, the station manager stands amidst the wreckage of his promotion, dazed and confused, while the credits roll. In the world of mobile commerce, we cannot afford such a passive ending. When fraud happens, there are no laugh tracks—only financial loss and eroded consumer trust.
But unlike a sitcom script, the ending of this story is not written in stone. As we approach another Black Friday, the mobile ecosystem is no longer relying on luck or hoping that consumers will simply “spot the turkey.” Through the Mobile Ecosystem Forum, we are building a defense that is as sophisticated as the attacks it counters. By enforcing strict Sender ID verification, harmonizing global registries, and fostering relentless cross-sector collaboration, we are changing the rules of the game.
Fraudsters will always try to make us believe their “turkeys” can fly. They will always try to sell us a reality that doesn’t exist. But with the right safeguards in place, and a united industry standing guard, we can ensure that the only thing dropping this Black Friday are the prices—not our defenses.
