UK Government Announces Anti-fraud Strategy to Handle Scammers
- vstory
VIVA – The United Kingdom (UK) government on Sunday announced new anti-fraud strategi to strengthen protect the public from scammers, by create 400-person investigate body and a a ban on cold calls promoting financial products, including sham cryptocurrency schemes.
According to government figures, fraud was now the most common crime in the UK, with losses totaling £7 billion (around IDR 128,59 trillion) and affecting 1 in 15 people.
The new strategy, which received a cautious welcome from leading consumer rights groups, is backed by 30 million pounds of new public investment.
"Scammers ruin people's lives in seconds," The UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak stated.
"By blocking fraud at its source, strengthening protection of the public and strengthening enforcement, we will prevent more of these cold-hearted crimes from happening in the first place," he added.
The government said it was working with UK communications regulator, obviously to handle "number spoofing" or the act of disguising the identity of the recipient of a call by a caller.
The plans also include ban on methods used to reach thousands of people at once and a review into mass text messaging services to prevent such technology being used for crime, the statement said.
The opposition Labor Party, the plan is "too little, too late". While consumer group which welcomed the strategy but criticized the government for not taking steps sooner.
The fight against fraud has developed too slowly in recent years, and in particular more action is needed to ensure big tech platforms take fraud seriously,"
The UK government said the new national anti-fraud team will replace existing services and overhaul the way crime is investigated with a proactive, intelligence-led approach.
The government estimates that around two-thirds of fraud cases in the UK start abroad or have international connections.
Moreover, according to a government statement, UK Home Secretary, Suella Braverman would host a high-level conference to discuss global fraud and efforts to improve cross-border cooperation.