Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps he is taking to address telephone scamming related to banking services.

The Government takes all types of fraud, including those operating through telephones, extremely seriously. The Government is continuing to work closely with the police, Financial Fraud Action UK, and the British Bankers’ Association on initiatives to tackle fraud. Last year, during the ‘Know Fraud, No Fraud’ campaign, UK banks, building societies and card issuers, with the support of the police, published a Joint Declaration explaining the requests they would never ask of customers over the phone. This includes never asking a customer to authorise the transfer of funds to a new account.

The Government also recommends that any person affected by telephone scams such as vishing, formally report their case to Action Fraud. Action Fraud is a Government supported specialist fraud reporting and advice service operated by the City of London Police. When a serious threat or a new type of fraud is identified, Action Fraud places an alert on its website with advice for individuals to protect themselves from becoming victims. Members of the public can sign up to receive these alerts by email.

Ofcom, the communications regulator in the UK, has worked closely with the Metropolitan Police Service, Action Fraud and landline providers to prevent criminals exploiting phone lines to trick and defraud members of the public. All landline providers have now reduced the time a call remains open after one party hangs up down to two seconds. This makes it much more difficult for criminals to exploit phone lines in this way.