Asked by: Baroness Liddell of Coatdyke (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what action they are taking to limit online financial fraud.
Answered by Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon
This Government is clear that more must be done not only to disrupt and prosecute criminals but also to protect people and businesses from becoming victims of fraud. In February this year the Government launched the Joint Fraud Taskforce a genuine collaboration of banks, law enforcement and government. It is the first time these organisations have come together to tackle fraud, and particularly to focus on those issues that have been considered too difficult for a single organisation to manage alone. The Taskforce has five work strands which are:
- Understanding the Threat - Bringing together data to agree key threats, vulnerabilities and drivers of fraud;
- The Collective Response - Better targeting to disrupt and catch fraudsters, through increased cooperation between banks and law enforcement;
- Victims & Vulnerability - More efficient identification of victims, including addressing the barriers preventing return of funds to victims;
- Behaviour Change - better targeted messaging on fraud prevention and,
- Tackling systemic vulnerabilities - Designing out vulnerabilities and loopholes in systems and processes which fraudsters exploit.
The Government has also published in March this year "A Guide for Consumers: Staying Safe When You Shop and Bank Online." The report draws on real life, anonymised examples of reported crimes and provides simple but effective advice on how the people can protect themselves from these types of frauds: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/a-guide-for-consumers-staying-safe-when-you-bank-or-shop-online