Delivery Services: Fraud

(asked on 24th May 2021) - View Source

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to (a) reduce incidences and (b) raise awareness of delivery text scams.


Answered by
Kevin Foster Portrait
Kevin Foster
This question was answered on 27th May 2021

Fraudsters are sophisticated and will exploit any vulnerabilities they can, especially as more of us find ourselves at home and online.

We are working hard to tackle fraud. As part of the 2020 Spending Review, the Government committed a further £63m to the Home Office to tackle economic crime, including fraud. This is in addition to the funding the Home Office commits each year to the National Economic Crime Centre in the NCA, and police forces, including over £15m each year to the City of London Police as the national lead force for fraud.

The Dedicated Card and Payment Crime Unit (DCPCU), a specialist unit which was set up last year in collaboration with City of London Police, the Metropolitan Police and UK Finance, recently made 8 arrests as part of an investigation in Royal Mail text scams (https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-57226704).

However, we recognise there is still more to do, and are working closely with DCMS, the telecommunication industry, regulators and consumer groups to tackle fraud and close those vulnerabilities (e.g., like the ability to ‘spoof’ the number of a legitimate organisation) criminals too easily exploit in order to protect the public.

We are also raising awareness among the public to help them protect themselves.

Royal Mail has issued guidance on how to spot fake emails and communications and what to do if you have received one. More information can be found on the Royal Mail’s website: https://www.royalmail.com/help/scam-examples.

Action Fraud issued an alert on delivery scams on 23 December last year (found here: https://www.actionfraudalert.co.uk/da/357020/Scam%20warning%20-%20Fake%20DPD%20emails%20and%20texts.html).

We continue to encourage the public to forward suspicious text messages to 7726 (which is free of charge) and anyone who has been a targeted by a scam to report it. Action Fraud is the national reporting service for all victims of fraud and cybercrime and can be contacted by phone on 0300 123 2040 or through their website: http://www.actionfraud.police.uk/report_fraud.

Reticulating Splines