Question to the Home Office:

To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Williams of Trafford on 14 May (HL3707), what is the current status of their Suspicious Emails Reporting Service.

In April 2020, the NCSC launched the Suspicious Email Reporting Service. This initiative by the NCSC makes a significant contribution to the Government’s aim to make the UK the safest place to live and work online.

As of 14 May, the Suspicious Email Reporting Service has had more than 300,000 emails submitted, leading to over 2,500 unique URLs, which resulted in 600 bogus sites being taken down. Examples of threats the NCSC has removed with the help of the reporting service include:

- Scam web pages that have been flagged include mock-ups of official GOV.uk and TV licencing websites (visitors are lured into giving their billing information to scammers posing as these legitimate organisations).

- Scam web pages purporting to sell coronavirus linked bogus products such as testing kits, face makes and even vaccines. (The NCSC noted a rise in cyber crime exploiting the coronavirus pandemic last month.)

This automated email reporting service makes it easier than ever for people to help protect others from falling victim to scams. To use the reporting service, people are asked to simply forward suspect emails to report@phishing.gov.uk. If they are found to link to malicious content, it will be taken down or blocked, helping prevent future victims of crime.