Oral Answers to Questions Debate

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Department: Home Office

Oral Answers to Questions

James Davies Excerpts
Monday 22nd November 2021

(2 years, 4 months ago)

Commons Chamber
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James Davies Portrait Dr James Davies (Vale of Clwyd) (Con)
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5. What steps her Department is taking to tackle online fraud.

Damian Hinds Portrait The Minister for Security and Borders (Damian Hinds)
- Parliament Live - Hansard - - - Excerpts

Online fraud can cause very serious harm to victims, both financial and emotional. We are determined to protect the public from these crimes and to go after those that commit them. The draft Online Safety Bill will be one important tool to enhance our abilities in that.

James Davies Portrait Dr Davies
- Parliament Live - Hansard - -

I thank my right hon. Friend for that update. Ofcom allows those who receive spam text messages to forward them to a service, 7726, to report the receipt of those messages. How will the law enforcement agencies use the data acquired to locate and to punish the perpetrators of those crimes?

Damian Hinds Portrait Damian Hinds
- Parliament Live - Hansard - - - Excerpts

I am grateful to my hon. Friend for highlighting the 7726 service, because referrals to that help to build up the intelligence on SMS fraudsters or scam texters and can help to lead to take-downs. It is really important that law enforcement works both with regulators and directly with individual telecoms companies to protect victims and go after the criminals responsible.