BBB Institute for Marketplace Trust

BBB scam tracker & BBB scam prevention guide: BBB scam tracker is an online tool that enables consumers to report scam activity. Following the upgrade in 2022, BBB Institute continues to expand the features of the platform to help protect the general public. In 2023 BBB Institute worked with its partners to develop and launch the BBB scam prevention guide. This guide includes videos about the riskiest scam types facing consumers, quizzes that help people learn if they can spot scams, a library of resources, and a BBB risk calculator that allows an individual to learn which types of scams are riskiest for them based on their age, gender, military status, and geographic location (united states or canada).

Fighting financial fraud: BBB Institute partnered with the finra investor education foundation to deliver the fighting financial fraud program, a train-the-trainer program for bbbs who teach people how to spot the signs of a financial scam, recognize scammer behaviors, and know where to go to verify legitimate investment professionals/brokers. Zelle supported the program in 2023, providing a presentation on digital payment safety.

Consumer education campaign with zelle (red flags of digital payment scams): BBB Institute partnered with zelle to deliver a consumer education campaign aimed at helping people identify and avoid losing money from digital payment scams. The digital campaign focused on four red flags that can help people spot and avoid all types of scams. It ran on youtube and facebook/instagram from august 21 to november 30, 2023, resulting in about 10.2 million impressions.

Research (BBB scam tracker risk report and targeting our youth: how scams impacted ages 18-24): BBB Institute published two research reports in 2023. The BBB scam tracker risk report analyzes all scam reports submitted to BBB scam tracker in 2023, highlighting how scams are perpetrated, who is being targeted, which scams have the biggest impact, and more. The targeting our youth report highlights how people ages 18-24 are being impacted by scams. The findings from both reports were highlighted in consumer education resources that were developed by BBB Institute and distributed by the network of bbbs.military & veterans initiative: BBB Institute continued to provide resources and educational programming to military consumers and veterans in partnership with bbbs throughout the united states. The military & veterans initiative focuses on: 1) providing fraud prevention resources to servicemembers and their families on and around military installations, 2) community outreach to provide resources to veterans, 3) sharing information and tips via social media and other online channels, and 4) distributing a monthly e-newsletter to 10k+ military consumers that provides financial readiness and fraud prevention articles. Bbb4good: seven bbbs currently offer the bbb4good program. The program enables purpose-driven businesses to become "bbb4good verified businesses" by vetting their social good activities with BBB. Bbb4good empowers consumers to identify businesses that reflect their values and allows purpose-driven businesses to stand out in the marketplace.outreach: the BBB Institute team continues to speak and participate in events with strategic partners, enabling the organization to expand its reach to the general public, including vulnerable populations, about how scams are being perpetrated in the Marketplace. In 2023, BBB Institute's executive director spoke at the global anti-scam summit in lisbon, portugal to share new findings about how to help scam victims. BBB scam survival toolkit: BBB Institute continues to build new features into the BBB scam tracker platform to encourage people to report scams, provide the knowledge they need to avoid scams, and help those who are impacted by scams. In 2023, we began work on the new BBB scam survival toolkit (bbb.org/scamsurvivalkit) in partnership with amazon and capital one. This toolkit connects scam survivors with the resources they need to restore their financial, mental, and emotional well-being. A beta version of the website was launched in december 2023. The fully upgraded toolkit will be launched in the spring of 2024.