Cryptocurrencies: Fraud

(asked on 29th November 2021) - View Source

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether the Government is developing plans to protect investors from potential crypto currency scams.


Answered by
Damian Hinds Portrait
Damian Hinds
Minister of State (Education)
This question was answered on 7th December 2021

The Government recognises the serious risks presented by scams and fraud and the huge financial and emotional impact they can have on victims. This is why the Home Office is working with other departments, law enforcement and the private sector to better protect the public and businesses from fraud, reduce the impact on victims, and ensure fraudsters have no space to operate.

This includes the development of a new Fraud Action Plan, the relaunch of the Joint Fraud Taskforce and publication of charters with the retail banking, telecommunications and accountancy sectors. As part of the Police Uplift Programme to recruit an additional 20,000 officers by 2023, we have prioritised more investigators in the City of London Police to fulfil their role as a world class fraud specialist force.

We have also channelled additional resource into the Regional Organised Crime Unit network to work on a host of serious and organised crime threats including fraud. The Government is also reviewing asset recovery powers to ensure the architects of such scams cannot profit from their crimes and intends to bring forward legislation on crypto assets when parliamentary time allows.

We continue to encourage the public to report fraud to Action Fraud and to forward any suspicious emails to report@phishing.gov.uk and suspicious texts to 7726, free of charge.

This information is being used by the City of London Police alongside crime reports to identify, disrupt and stop fraudsters. Any contact with rogue traders should also be reported to Trading Standards at

https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/consumer/get-more-help/report-to-trading-standards/.

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