Insights

Webinar Recap: Cross-Industry Collaboration in the Fight Against Fraud

Nov 11, 2025

Fraud is evolving and it’s targeting everyone. From financial institutions to carriers to regional providers, no corner of the communications ecosystem is immune.

In two recent webinars, one focused on carriers and the other on financial institutions, Somos brought together fraud experts from across the telecom and banking sectors for a conversation that was as urgent as it was hopeful. The message: fraud is coming for all of us, but our best defense lies in something simple and powerful – collaboration.

Moderated by Jaime Zetterstrom, Somos’ VP of Product Management, the panels featured AT&T’s Adam Panagia, Bank of America’s Micah Semon, Sinch’s Stacy Graham, Navy Federal Credit Union’s Anna Fridley, Verizon’s Chris Oatway and Elizabeth Gray Nunez, Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association’s (CTIA) Mike Beirne and Industry Trackback Group’s (ITG) Joshua Bercu and Jessica Thompson. Together, they explored how aligning efforts across industries isn’t just a best practice; it’s the only path forward.

Fraudsters are no longer lone actors. They’re criminal organizations leveraging increasingly complex infrastructure – SIM farms, spoofed numbers, compromised messaging platforms – to exploit vulnerabilities across both telecom and financial ecosystems.

Some staggering figures shared:

• Impersonation scams have increased by 148% year-over-year
• Estimated losses from scams in 2025 alone could reach $64 billion
• The telecom industry lost $41.8 billion globally in fraud-related revenue, according to the latest CFCA survey
• Deloitte’s Center for Financial Services predicts that generative AI could enable fraud losses to reach $40 billion in the U.S. by 2027
• 57% of Financial Services Organizations and 66% of lending organizations reported an increase in overall fraud levels in the past 12 months.
• 63% of Financial Firms report overall fraud increasing at least 6% in the prior 12 months.

Fraud today is about more than spam, it’s about trust. Consumers need to know that the call or text they receive is legitimate. And when they fall victim, the financial and emotional toll can be devastating. Despite the seriousness of the threat, these webinars offered something rare in conversations about fraud: optimism.

Over the past two years, cross-industry collaboration has accelerated at a remarkable pace. Carriers and financial institutions are not only talking to each other more; they’re actively partnering to disrupt fraud campaigns before they scale.

This includes:

• Shared intelligence frameworks like the National Cyber Forensics and Training Alliance (NCFTA), Financial Services Information Sharing and Analysis Center (FS-ISAC) and the Communications Fraud Control Association (CFCA)
• Joint incident response, including coordinated takedowns of SIM farms and fraud infrastructure
• Enhanced vetting and monitoring practices across telecom networks to flag unusual behavior early
• Support for regional operators, ensuring smaller providers and institutions aren’t left behind

The takeaway? When a carrier gets a call from a bank, or vice versa, the answer should be: “Let’s work on this together.” The relationships built through groups like CFCA, CTIA and ITG are creating an ecosystem where bad actors can’t operate unchecked.

These webinars weren’t about checklists or compliance mandates. They were about community. As one panelist put it: “You’re not in this fight alone, and you’re not supposed to be.”

For regional carriers and smaller financial institutions, the panel emphasized three actions:

1. Get connected: Join collaborative groups like CFCA or CTIA. These forums are where early signals are shared and support networks are built.
2. Know Your Customer (KYC): Monitor usage patterns for anomalies. Unusual behavior may signal compromised accounts or abuse.
3. Respond and engage: If a partner organization reaches out, answer the call. The best outcomes come when organizations act quickly and together.

Fighting fraud isn’t about one-time fixes or technology alone, it’s about people. The trust we’re trying to protect is human trust, and it will take human collaboration to rebuild and defend it.

Somos is proud to help lead that effort, bringing together the right voices, building bridges across sectors and championing a future where trust in communication is not a luxury, but a standard.

Let’s keep the momentum going. Reach out to us at connect@somos.com and let’s work together to build more secure, resilient and trusted communications.