Personation: Social Media

(asked on 11th June 2020) - View Source

Question to the Home Office:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have, if any, to make creating a false identity on a social networking platform, for the purpose of deception, abuse or fraud, a criminal offence.


Answered by
Baroness Williams of Trafford Portrait
Baroness Williams of Trafford
Captain of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms (HM Household) (Chief Whip, House of Lords)
This question was answered on 25th June 2020

The Government is aware of the harms caused by identity crime and that criminals use false identities to commit and enable a range of offences. We are deeply concerned by the growth in scale and complexity of scams and fraudulent activity online. Victims can suffer both financial and emotional harm, and we are conscious that criminals exploit social relationships to achieve their objectives.

Where a person:

  • dishonestly makes a false representation knowing that it is untrue or misleading, or knowing that it might be, and

  • they intend to make a gain, to cause loss to another, or to expose another to a risk of loss

then they will be committing an offence under section 2 of the Fraud Act 2006 of fraud by false representation.

The Government is firmly committed to making the UK the safest place to be online, and we are looking to bring forward legislation to do so as soon as possible.

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