Tech giants MUST help foil the foreign gangs targeting UK, says ANTHONY BROWNE MP

Fraud is the biggest form of crime in the UK and these days it is a lot more than someone using your stolen credit card. It involves sophisticated scammers tricking you in to giving them your money.

Around 80 per cent of it is cyber-enabled — criminals using social media to steal. They put up fake adverts for investment scams, pretend to have a car for sale that doesn’t actually exist, or lure you into thinking they are your own child in need of emergency cash. 

Scams can be seen as victimless crimes, but they cause emotional and financial devastation. More than three million people fall victim in the UK each year.

That is why I welcome the Daily Mail’s Stop The Social Media Scammers Campaign, highlighting the way the fraudsters work.

But, as the Mail is demanding, we also need to force social media companies to put stronger systems in place to stop the scammers.

Online threat: Scams can be seen as victimless crimes, but they cause emotional and financial devastation. More than three million people fall victim in the UK each year

Some, such as Google, Twitter and TikTok have already taken steps to stop fraud. Data from the banks show that 61 per cent of all so-called authorised push-payment scams in the UK are on platforms owned by Meta — Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp.

Scams have become such a big issue in the UK that the Prime Minister appointed me as his Anti-Fraud Champion, the first time any country has had someone in such a position. 

Before becoming an MP, I led the banks’ efforts to stop fraud, but now my task is to lead the Government against scammers.

We must strengthen law enforcement, but also stop the scams happening in the first place. 

My job is to use all the tools of Government, including legislation and regulation, to ensure such strong anti-fraud measures are in place that the scammers are put out of business.

Most is done by organised criminal gangs, many based overseas. Around seven in 10 frauds have an international element.

It is big business: they are flush with cash, have access to sophisticated technologies and can train up their armies of fraudsters, working in fraud factories.

The UK is a global hotspot for fraud for four main reasons. There is more money here than most countries. 

We speak English, making it easier for international gangs. We are relatively technologically enabled. 

And we have an instant payments system — Faster Payments — which makes it easier for fraudsters to whisk off cash within seconds of getting it.

There is much to do to stop the scammers, but also a lot we are already doing. We have just launched a new National Fraud Squad with 400 officers.

We are making sure local police forces make tackling fraud a higher priority. Working with partners, we will launch a major public awareness campaign so more people know how to protect themselves.

But we will not win the battle against fraud without widescale changes to the way companies — especially tech firms — operate.

Hot spot: Data from the banks show that 61%t of all so-called authorised push-payment scams in the UK are on platforms owned by Meta – Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp

Fraud is so varied there is no single bullet that will kill it off, so the Government’s approach is to deploy every weapon in its arsenal. We have legislated to force banks and other payments providers to compensate victims of fraud — the only country to do this. 

This gives them a financial incentive to deploy AI technology to block fraudulent payments. The Payments System Regulator is looking at slowing down suspect payments to give banks and police time to act.

All our mobile phone companies have now brought in an AI-driven SpamShield to filter out scam texts. While the system is far from perfect it has stopped 600 million scams texts so far.

Yet given that 80 per cent of fraud is cyber-enabled, it is tech firms that must do the most to stop it. Many do a lot to stop fraud but not all — and the fraudsters know how to spot weaknesses.

As the Mail has demanded, there are simple measures tech firms can take, such as checking the identity of those who take out paid advertising or try to sell goods on peer-to-peer marketplaces.

The Mail is also asking for secure payment systems, which work well on platforms such as eBay.

The new Online Safety Bill will require social media companies to treat fraud as a ‘priority harm’ and put in place robust systems to block fraudsters or face fines of up to 10 per cent of turnover.

That will take some time to come in, so I am negotiating an Online Fraud Charter, to make sure all the main tech firms quickly put in place industry-leading systems to stop fraud.

This will require firms to make stronger efforts to stop scams in the first place, to take them down quickly when they happen and work with police to catch the scammers.

If all social media firms put in place the systems that the best ones use, it would reduce fraud dramatically. No other country is doing as much as the UK to stop scams and other governments are keen to find out what we are doing.

Governments have never previously worked together to stop fraud, but it is a global problem.

It would be more powerful if governments worked together. In the new year, we will hold the first ever global fraud summit in London, to catalyse international Government action against fraudsters.

We know we cannot stand still. Fraudsters are great entrepreneurs, if we close down one line of business, they will find other ways to steal our money. But tackling fraud is now a clear priority across government, regulators and industry.

We are at a turning point and all guns are now focused on the enemy. This is a battle we can start to win.

Meta said: ‘We recognise the important role we must play in tackling this industry-wide issue. We don’t want anyone to fall victim to these criminals which is why we have systems to block scams and financial services advertisers now have to be FCA authorised. 

Scammers are using increasingly sophisticated methods to defraud people which is why we run consumer awareness campaigns on how to spot fraudulent behaviour.’

This post first appeared on Dailymail.co.uk