JPMorgan Chase is putting nearly $14 million toward fighting fraud, funding seven organizations that build scam detection tools, run consumer education programs, and develop AI-powered platforms designed to catch bad actors before they reach your bank account.
The philanthropic investment targets what JPMorgan frames as a massive, underappreciated problem: US households lose an estimated $158 billion annually to fraud and scams.
Where the money is going
Among the more notable projects is an AI-powered text platform being developed by Prosperity Now, designed to detect scams in real time. Instead of catching phishing emails after the fact, it’s meant to flag suspicious communications as they happen.
Another funded initiative comes from the Stop Scams Alliance, which is conducting a nationwide fraud prevalence survey. Getting a clearer picture of how, where, and why people get scammed gives organizations better data to work with when designing prevention tools.
JPMorgan says it blocked $12 billion in scams through its own internal systems. That number offers some perspective on scale. If a single bank is stopping $12 billion and the total losses still hit $158 billion, the problem is clearly outrunning the solutions currently in place.
A traditional fraud play, not a crypto one
None of the seven funded organizations appear to focus on digital asset fraud, blockchain-based scams, or cryptocurrency theft. Every initiative targets traditional fraud vectors: phone scams, text-based phishing, financial exploitation of vulnerable populations, and similar schemes.
What this means for the broader fraud landscape
Regulators in the US and UK have been pushing banks toward greater accountability for authorized push payment fraud, where consumers are tricked into sending money to scammers voluntarily.
The nationwide fraud survey funded through Stop Scams Alliance could prove particularly valuable. Fraud statistics are notoriously unreliable because most victims don’t report. A comprehensive prevalence study would give policymakers and financial institutions a much clearer baseline to work from.
The $158 billion annual loss figure highlights a massive addressable market for fraud prevention startups and fintech companies. JPMorgan funding external organizations rather than building everything in-house suggests even the largest bank in the US recognizes it can’t solve this problem alone.