Question to the Home Office:

To ask Her Majesty’s Government, in the light of the Microsoft Technical Support scam, what assessment they have made of the level of such fraud and its consequences.

In the year to June 2016 (the latest published Action Fraud figures), there were 24,565 incidents of computer software service fraud, an increase of 2% when compared with the previous year (24,109 in year to June 2015).

The Fraud Act 2006 is clear that fraud can be committed even where no money has been lost. Computer software service fraud should be reported to Action Fraud, the national reporting centre for fraud and online crime. All fraud reports made to Action Fraud are subsequently transferred to the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau (NFIB). The NFIB evaluates the reports to assess information available which could assist an investigation, and also to identify links between seemingly unconnected incidents and therefore build intelligence.

This Government is committed to ensuring that law enforcement and the intelligence agencies have the tools they need to carry out the critical responsibilities Parliament has placed on them. One of the key aims of the Investigatory Powers Act is to ensure that investigatory powers are fit for a digital age and that crime can be investigated wherever it takes place, regardless of the method of communication.

The Investigatory Powers Act, once brought into force, will provide that communications data may be acquired for the purpose of preventing or detecting crime, wherever that crime takes place, where an application for communications data meets the requirements for necessity and proportionality set out in the Act. This would, of course, include the use of the powers to investigate fraud and other related criminal offences.