Telecommunications Fraud: Reimbursement of Victims

Lord Cameron of Lochiel Excerpts

Wednesday 14th May 2025 Lords Chamber

[Lord Cameron of Lochiel (Con)]

My Lords, fraud of this kind targets some of the most vulnerable people in our society and causes considerable emotional as well as material harm. Given that 70% of fraud in the UK either originates overseas or has an international link, can the Minister update the House on how the Government are working with other countries to make sure that those abroad who are targeting people in this country are stopped?

[Lord Hanson of Flint (Lab)]

Absolutely; that is an extremely valuable point. Again in the upcoming fraud strategy, we will look at a number of countries from which fraud emanates. We have put just under £1 million into supporting the United Nations conference on this very issue, which will be held next year; the UK is leading the charge on that. For those noble Lords who may have missed me, a couple of weeks ago I spent four days in Nigeria dealing with the Nigerian Government and, with them, signing a charter to look at joint co-operation on fraud that emanates from both our country and theirs collectively; that is the first of a number of charters and codes of practice that we will look at with other countries. This is an extremely important point: there are certain areas from which fraud emanates very strongly. We need an international response to what is an international criminal gang operation.