Question to the Home Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government, following the recent increase in cases of advance fee mortgage scams, what steps they are taking to prevent such scams.

As part of our Fraud Strategy, we have worked closely with the financial services industry to protect customers against a variety of fraud types, including advance fee scams. This includes the Retail Banking Fraud Sector Charter which has delivered ambitious and innovative actions to prevent authorised fraud and protect customers. We have also agreed similar charters with the telecommunications, accountancy and online sectors.

According to the Crime Survey of England and Wales, ‘Advance fee fraud’ has decreased by 33% in the year ending September 2023 from 546,000 to 367,000 offences.