New research suggests scammers repeatedly exploit shared digital infrastructure, highlighting opportunities to disrupt multiple campaigns at once, according to cybersecurity firm ReasonLabs.

Nearly 79% of online scam campaigns share at least one concrete indicator with another campaign, suggesting that seemingly unrelated scams often rely on common infrastructure.

Rethinking the fraud ecosystem could help governments and industry to disrupt fraud at scale, the cybersecurity firm stated.

The report, “Stopping Fraud Before the First Click: Rethinking Consumer Protection for the Digital Fraud Ecosystem,” examines how fraud has evolved from isolated scams into an interconnected industry that uses shared digital infrastructure, consumer information, and increasingly artificial intelligence to reach victims at scale.

In one case, researchers identified a single block of SMS numbers supporting at least eight unrelated scam operators.

“Fighting fraud one scam at a time risks an endless game of whac-a-mole,” said Andrew Newman, founder and chief technology officer at ReasonLabs. “Most of these campaigns depend on infrastructure that can be identified across multiple scams. Taking down one shared asset can disrupt many campaigns at once and stop fraud before it reaches consumers.”

Data revealed that more than one-third of fraudulent web addresses identified in ReasonLab”s research pointed to widely shared, legitimate platforms. Fraudsters can create accounts, use them briefly, abandon them when detected, and return under new identities.

The report calls for government and technology providers to work together to make that infrastructure more resistant to repeated abuse, including through stronger verification and controls aimed at repeat offenders.

The recommendations align with provisions of the proposed SAFE Platforms Act, including advertiser verification, enhanced checks for high-risk financial and cryptocurrency advertisements, and measures to prevent banned advertisers from returning under new identities.

The report also calls for stronger public-private information sharing.

Telecom providers, financial institutions, technology platforms, and cybersecurity companies often see different pieces of the same fraud campaign but lack efficient mechanisms to connect them.

ReasonLabs recommends a cross-sector hub for sharing fraud indicators, coupled with good-faith protections for participating companies.

Rather than relying primarily on complaints, financial losses, arrests, and recovered funds, policymakers should also track the time from detection to disruption, lifespan of fraudulent domains, infrastructure reuse, and percentage of campaigns identified before the first consumer complaint.

“No single policy or technology will eliminate fraud,” said CEO Kobi Kalif at ReasonLabs. “Enforcement, bipartisan legislation, and private-sector prevention, working together, can stop more fraud before it reaches consumers.”