BBB Partners With Amazon and Capitol One to Identify and Combat Scams

The Better Business Bureau’s (BBB) educational foundation, the BBB Institute for Marketplace Trust, has partnered with Amazon and Capital One to help people learn about, avoid and report scams.

With the partnership, the BBB Scam Tracker online reporting tool has gained new features that not only help consumers, but also provide partners with data that will help them better protect consumers from scammers, BBB said Thursday (Nov. 3) in a press release.

“By our estimates, BBB Scam Tracker saved consumers $31.4 million in 2021,” BBB Institute Executive Director Melissa Lanning Trumpower said in the release. “Partnering with Amazon and Capital One enables us to expand the impact of this platform.”

The new BBB Scam Tracker now includes a guided questionnaire that helps consumers file reports quickly and easily. It also allows them to share the report with others via email or social media and receive updates about new tactics used by scanners, according to the press release.

The online reporting tool’s search function has also been upgraded to enable consumers to search for scams by URL, email address and phone number, per the release.

To help partners like Amazon and Capital One fight fraud, the BBB Scam Tracker has a report functionality that shares data about scams, the release stated.

“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,” Amazon Vice President and Associate General Counsel Kathy Sheehan said in the announcement.

For Capital One, “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,” Capital One Head of Customer Service and Strategy Sarah Strauss said in the release.

As PYMNTS reported in March, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) said that losses from internet crimes rose to a record $6.9 billion in 2021 — a 7% leap compared to the prior year.