BBB Joins Forces with Amazon and Capital One to Fight Scammers

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Vancouver, BC - November 3, 2022

The BBB Institute for Marketplace Trust (BBB Institute) is partnering with Amazon and Capital One to help people learn about scams, report them, and avoid losing money and/or personal information by enhancing the capabilities of the BBB Scam Tracker online reporting tool. 

“BBB Scam Tracker was launched in 2015 and its impact has been significant,” said Melissa Lanning Trumpower, executive director of BBB Institute, the Better Business Bureau’s educational foundation.

“By our estimates, BBB Scam Tracker saved consumers $31.4 million (USD) in 2021 alone. Partnering with Amazon and Capital One enables us to expand the impact of this platform.”

The new Scam Tracker enables consumers to review and edit their reports before submission, and then share their report with friends and family via social media or email. It also provides the option to receive updates about the constantly evolving tactics that scammers use. The platform has also improved mobile optimization and includes a new guided questionnaire that makes it quick and easy to report a scam. 

In addition, an upgraded search function enables consumers to search scams within the tool by URL, email address, phone number and more. BBB Scam Tracker reports are also accessible via broader online searches, expanding the reach of the platform and helpful information to others who may be searching for help.

“The new BBB Scam Tracker will provide an improved customer experience, while providing enhanced data capabilities to support partners to collaborate on fighting scams and protecting consumers,” shared Simone Lis, President, Better Business Bureau of Mainland BC. 

“With the latest upgrades allowing you to search by website, phone number, and email address, any second guesses around an uneasy phone call or sketchy website can be squashed. If we’ve got a report on it in our database, you’ll be able to find it for yourself.”

These new features make it easier for consumers to identify scams and report them while arming partners with more robust data on scammers. Additional features include an API and system-generated report functionality that enables scam data sharing with fraud-fighting partners. Updated back-end technology improves the speed of the tool and allows for future enhancements to be made. 

BBB Institute will continue to make upgrades to Scam Tracker to meet the growing needs of consumers that lose money to scams, particularly the older demographic groups who are more susceptible to fraud.

Amazon and Capital One are both BBB Accredited Businesses. Amazon has been BBB Accredited since 1996. Capital One has been BBB Accredited since 1995. With their support of this project, Amazon and Capital One become members of the BBB Corporate Trust Council, a coalition of select companies that join with BBB Institute to build a trustworthy marketplace by providing their expertise, resources, and funding support.

Partner Quotes:

“Our partnership with the Better Business Bureau and support of the enhanced Scam Tracker tool highlights our focus on helping consumers and earning their trust,” said Sarah Strauss, Head of Customer Service and Strategy at Capital One. “Educating consumers on how to better protect themselves from scams and what to do if they think they’ve been a scam victim is crucial in the fight against bad actors.”

“Amazon is committed to protecting our customers from scams and helping them protect themselves,” said Kathy Sheehan, vice president and associate general counsel at Amazon. “We’re grateful to support the work of consumer advocates like the Better Business Bureau. Better data on attempted scams—whether consumers report them directly to us or through tools like Scam Tracker—will help identify the bad actors behind these fraudulent schemes and bring them to justice.”

ABOUT BBB AND BBB INSTITUTE: 

For more than 100 years, the Better Business Bureau has been helping people find businesses, brands, and charities they can trust. In 2020, people turned to BBB more than 220 million times for BBB Business Profiles on 6.2 million businesses and Charity Reports on 11,000 charities, all available for free at BBB.org.

The BBB Institute for Marketplace Trust (BBB Institute) is the BBB’s educational foundation, whose mission is to educate and protect consumers, promote best practices for businesses, and solve complex marketplace problems. BBB Institute’s consumer educational programs, which include a wide array of resources on fraud prevention and education, are delivered both digitally and in-person by Better Business Bureaus serving communities across North America. You can find more information about BBB Institute and its programs at BBBMarketplaceTrust.org.