The UK government has announced new measures to combat the rising threat of fraud, particularly focusing on “text-scam misery.” The plans, which will be presented to Parliament on Wednesday, include the establishment of a National Fraud Squad led by the National Crime Agency and the City of London Police, supported by 400 new positions.
Additionally, a £30 million investment is committed to creating a state-of-the-art reporting centre scheduled to open within the year. Other initiatives feature the prohibition of “Sim farms”—devices that enable criminals to send fraudulent texts to thousands simultaneously—a crackdown on number spoofing, and a ban on cold calls for financial products.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak stated, “Fraud now accounts for over 40% of crime. It costs us nearly £7 billion a year and we know these proceeds are funding organised crime and terror. New technologies are making these scams easier to perpetrate and harder to police. It’s time to take the fight to the scammers and fraudsters, and put an end to these crimes which can devastate lives and livelihoods within seconds.”
However, opposition leaders criticized the proposals as insufficient. Yvette Cooper, the shadow home secretary, commented, “This plan…fails to match the scale of the problem. All the home secretary has delivered is a rebadging of existing national teams and a re-announcement on the replacement of Action Fraud from almost two years ago.”