The UK government has unveiled a new fraud strategy focused on reducing the impact of phone and online fraud, but critics say it doesn’t go far enough.
The long-awaited response to the multi-billion pound problem will see £30m ($38m) invested in replacing the much-criticized Action Fraud reporting hub. The Fraud and Cybercrime Reporting and Analysis Service (FCCRAS) is designed to provide a better user experience by using methods to reduce latency and see how cases are progressing.
Also announced was a new national anti-fraud task force of 400 expert investigators and an advocate for anti-fraud within government. Anthony Brown, former Chairman of the British Bankers Association and Tory MP.
He emphasized that technology companies, telecommunications companies and financial institutions are taking a more proactive stance to nip fraud in the bud.
For example, social media companies will be forced to provide simple mechanisms that allow users to report abuse with just two clicks. Banks are also empowered to delay suspicious payments pending an investigation.
Read more about UK fraud: Think tank warns of ‘silent stealing’ scam.
The government said it would ban SIM firms used to drive large-scale fraud campaigns and all telemarketing calls for financial products. We are also working with Ofcom to further crack down on spoofed numbers used in many phone-based scams.
But critics quickly found holes in the new strategy.
Helena Wood, co-head of the UK Economic Crime Program at the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) think tank, said:
“They are certainly not enough to turn around decades of underinvestment in crime enforcement responses that affect more British citizens than any other country.”
RUSI has previously warned that fraud levels in the UK are so high that they pose a threat to national security.
Shadow Home Secretary Yvette Cooper noted that plans to replace Action Fraud were first announced almost two years ago.
“This plan is too small, too late, too small for the scale of the problem,” she argued.
Her colleague and shadow attorney general, Emily Thornberry, added that the strategy erroneously focuses solely on consumer fraud.
“While this is billed as a fully integrated blueprint for tackling the UK’s entire fraud crisis, it ignores the tens of billions of dollars lost to fraud against businesses and governments, and against ordinary people. It relies on an estimate of the cost of fraud, which is seven years old,” she argued.
It is also unclear how effectively the new National Fraud Task Force will be able to tackle crimes committed from abroad.
“With many cybercriminals based overseas and a wave of online anonymity tools making evidence increasingly difficult to find, law enforcement is left with few stones to find. It is possible,” claims ESET Global Cybersecurity Advisor Jake Moore.
But James Thomson, chairman of the City of London Police Authority Commission, has hailed the new strategy as an “important” step forward.
“Today’s measures, if fully implemented, will help increase public protection, prevent future victims, and keep fraudsters in jail,” he added.
“The UK must ensure that our cities and the wider national economy are the safest places in the world to do business. It is important.”
