Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to raise awareness of online internet shopping scams.

Tackling fraud requires a unified and co-ordinated response from government, law enforcement and the private sector to better protect the public and businesses from fraud, reduce the impact of fraud on victims, and increase the disruption and prosecution of fraudsters.

We will publish a strategy setting out how we will do this shortly. Raising awareness and safeguarding victims will form a key part of the Government's forthcoming fraud strategy. The strategy will outline how we will raise public awareness and safeguard victims through a number of actions including the provision of clear and consistent protect advice.

We are also working on a number of proactive actions to prevent fraud, including online shopping scams. Fraud has been brought into scope of the Online Safety Bill to make tech firms responsible for protecting their customers from fraud. DCMS is also leading work on the Online Advertising Programme, which is considering further regulation of online advertising and examining all harms related to online advertising, including fraud.

We are intending to launch a tech sector charter that will examine more ways Government and industry can collaborate and put in place further innovative solutions to protect the public from losing their hard-earned money.