Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many reports of (a) SMS scams, (b) email scams, (c) scam websites, and (d) scam adverts Action Fraud has received in each of the last five years.

The Office for National Statistics publish official statistics on the number of frauds reported to Action Fraud on a quarterly basis and the latest statistics can be found here:

https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/crimeandjustice/bulletins/crimeinenglandandwales/yearendingjune2021

However, the detailed information requested about how the fraud was committed is not held centrally.

Fraudsters are sophisticated and will exploit any vulnerabilities they can, especially as more of us find ourselves at home and online. As Government, we are working with the private sector, especially technology and communications companies to better tackle and identify the sources of these threats. We will continue to work with online platforms to identify what more can be done.

We continue to encourage the public to report fraud to Action fraud and to forward any suspicious emails to report@phishing.gov.uk and suspicious texts to 7726, free of charge.