Asked by: Lord Lucas (Conservative - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Barran on 19 July (HL1969), what proportion of the 6,500,000 reports received by the Suspicious Email Reporting Service resulted in the removal (1) a scam, (2) a web address, and (3) both.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The Suspicious Email Reporting Service (SERS) provides the public with a route for the escalation and removal of suspected phishing campaigns. The automated SERS processes emails received from the public, and if a malicious web address (URL) is identified in the email, a take down request is submitted to the hosting provider. To date we have identified more than 97,500 individual malicious URLs for removal which equates to 50,5000 individual scam campaigns. Multiple reports of the same scams have been forwarded to SERS. The total number of reports to SERS stands at 6.5m as at 30th June 2021.
SERS is one tool in HMG’s response to cybercrime, and is intended to empower people to simply forward suspicious emails to the NCSC for action. Full details of the NCSC’s comprehensive response to the proactive identification and removal of malicious activity on the internet can be found in its Active Cyber Defence Year 4 report. This report outlines all the measures the NCSC takes to identify and remove the malicious activity before it ever reaches the public, and can be found at https://www.ncsc.gov.uk/report/acd-report-year-four
If a person falls victim to a phishing email, that should be reported to Action Fraud and it will be logged as a crime.
Asked by: Chi Onwurah (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne Central)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what steps he is taking to minimise the risk of fraud facilitated through online advertisements in the period before the online advertising regulation consultation launches later in 2021.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
The Government is deeply concerned about the growth and scale of online fraud. We know that the best way to tackle these scams is to ensure that the public have all the advice and support they need to detect these frauds and avoid them. That is why we have published guidance on GOV.UK containing easy-to-follow steps and useful resources. This can currently be accessed here: www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-fraud-and-cyber-crime
As well as this, Action Fraud, the national reporting service for all victims of fraud and cybercrime, also regularly provide fraud alerts via their website including on common and newly seen fraud schemes. This can currently be accessed here: www.actionfraud.police.uk/news
The Online Safety Bill, published on the 12th May, will require companies in scope of regulation to take action to tackle fraud, where it is facilitated through user-generated content (for example by social media posts) or via search results. We expect the regulatory framework to have a particular impact on specific types of fraud, such as romance scams, which are estimated to cost over £60 million a year and cause significant psychological harm to victims.
As you are aware, DCMS will be considering how online advertising is regulated through its Online Advertising Programme. This work will look at ensuring that standards about the placement and content of advertising are effectively applied and enforced online to reduce consumers’ exposure to harmful or misleading advertising. This work will look at the role advertising can play in enabling online fraud and help inform our future efforts to tackle it. We will be consulting on this issue later this year.
Asked by: Chi Onwurah (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne Central)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to (a) reduce online and phone scams and (b) improve the ease of reporting them.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
The Government is deeply concerned by the growth in scale and complexity of online and phone scams. We are actively working with industry, regulators, law enforcement and consumer groups to crack down on these crimes and to protect victims.
Ofcom have adopted new rules relating to Call Line Identification (CLI), which means phone numbers used to perpetrate scams will be identified, filtered out and prevented from reaching the recipient.
As well as this, the Government has also now extended the Online Safety Bill to include fraudulent user-generated content. The draft bill can be found here: www.gov.uk/government/publications/draft-online-safety-bill.
We will publish a fraud action plan to further strengthen how we combat fraud after the 2021 Spending Review.
Reporting incidents of fraud helps us stop fraudsters and protect other people from becoming victims. We continue to ask the public to report fraud to the police through Action Fraud by phone on 0300 123 2040 or through their website: http://www.actionfraud.police.uk/report_fraud. Suspicious text messages can be reported to 7726 (which is free of charge) and suspicious emails to report@phishing.gov.uk.
Asked by: Luke Evans (Conservative - Bosworth)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what recent discussions he has had with representatives of internet search providers to tackle the presence of advertisements encouraging additional payments for tasks of minimal financial cost or no cost, including driving licence renewal and health cards.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
My department continues to work closely across government to support the development of a coherent and robust approach to dealing with online fraud, including with the Home Office as the lead department responsible for setting out the government’s approach to tackling fraud. The Government is aware this type of advertising exists and depending on the final scope of the policy, this type of advertising may fall within the scope of the Online Advertising Programme. The programme is seeking to reduce harms through online advertising.
Following a call for evidence in 2020, DCMS will be launching the Online Advertising Programme later this year to examine how best to strengthen standards around the placement and content of online advertising to minimise these types of financial harm, and to ensure they can be effectively enforced, including through new legislation where required.
More information about the Online Advertising Programme can be found here:
Asked by: Baroness Manzoor (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government whether tech companies hosting advertisements for financial products from rogue or scam operators are responsible for those advertisements; and what plans they have to ensure that such companies are held accountable for any such advertisements.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The Government takes fraud very seriously. We continue to work closely with industry to close down the vulnerabilities that fraudsters exploit and ensure members of the public have the information they need to spot a scam and stand up to fraudsters.
My department continues to work closely with other government departments, including the Home Office as the government department responsible for tackling fraud, to develop a coherent approach to online advertising that supports competition and protects consumers. We are working with industry, regulators and consumer groups to understand the specific harms that are being linked to advertising, including online fraud and scams.
Following a call for evidence in 2020, the Online Advertising Programme will launch a public consultation later this year to examine how best to strengthen standards around the placement and content of online advertising to minimise these types of financial harm, and to ensure they can be effectively enforced.
More information about the Programme can be found here:
Asked by: Baroness Manzoor (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to ensure that tech companies providing advertising space for financial products do not host advertisements from rogue or scam operators, in order to ensure that consumers are protected.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The Government takes fraud very seriously. We continue to work closely with industry to close down the vulnerabilities that fraudsters exploit and ensure members of the public have the information they need to spot a scam and stand up to fraudsters.
My department continues to work closely with other government departments, including the Home Office as the government department responsible for tackling fraud, to develop a coherent approach to online advertising that supports competition and protects consumers. We are working with industry, regulators and consumer groups to understand the specific harms that are being linked to advertising, including online fraud and scams.
Following a call for evidence in 2020, the Online Advertising Programme will launch a public consultation later this year to examine how best to strengthen standards around the placement and content of online advertising to minimise these types of financial harm, and to ensure they can be effectively enforced.
More information about the Programme can be found here:
Asked by: Marquess of Lothian (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what percentage of crime in England is categorised as online fraud; what percentage of policing resource is dedicated to combatting online fraud; and what plans they have to increase the level of police resource allocated to tackling digital crime.
Answered by Baroness Williams of Trafford - Captain of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms (HM Household) (Chief Whip, House of Lords)
The Government is aware that fraudsters continue to exploit technology and the internet to commit their crimes. Recent ONS estimates suggest that around 53% of all fraud is online enabled (Crime Survey of England and Wales data covering personal incidents of fraud and not fraud against businesses: Nature of crime: fraud and computer misuse - Office for National Statistics (ons.gov.uk). This Government is determined to drive down the number of these frauds and to protect the public from their harm.
Decisions on the allocation of funding received by Police Forces are determined at a local level in line with the priorities set by each Police and Crime Commissioner as part of their Police and Crime Plan. The Government continues to fund fraud capability to tackle these crimes. 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 £10m funding that the Home Office commits each year to the City of London Police to run the existing Action Fraud and National Fraud Intelligence Bureau services.
However, we will continue to explore all opportunities to go further on fraud and online, digital crime, including through the upcoming Spending Review.
Asked by: Martyn Day (Scottish National Party - Linlithgow and East Falkirk)
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 scams.
Answered by Kevin Foster
The Government recognises the serious risks presented by online scams and fraud and is working collaboratively with law enforcement and the private sector to reaffirm messages to the public setting out how they can protect themselves from fraud and stay safe online.
We know one of the best ways to deal with these scams is for the public to be well-informed on how to protect themselves. This is why we published guidance for the public to spot potential frauds and the steps they can take to avoid them. This advice can be accessed at:
www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-fraud-and-cyber-crime.
As well as this, Action Fraud, the national reporting service for all victims of fraud and cybercrime, also regularly provide fraud alerts via their website, which can help individuals raise their awareness of these sorts of scams, and advise on how to combat them:
www.actionfraud.police.uk/news.
We continue to encourage anybody who suspects an email, text or other form of communication to be suspicious to report it to report@phishing.gov.uk or forward a text to 7726, free of charge.
Asked by: Martyn Day (Scottish National Party - Linlithgow and East Falkirk)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment her Department has made of the effectiveness of the National Cyber Security Centre Suspicious Email Reporting Service in tackling online scams and frauds.
Answered by Kevin Foster
Fraudsters are sophisticated and will exploit any vulnerabilities they can, especially as more of us find ourselves at home and online.
To protect the public, the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), the UK’s national technical authority on cyber security, established the Suspicious Email Reporting Service. This service allows the public to report suspicious emails and potential phishing scams more effectively and easily to law enforcement. It has proved an instant success with the public, with over 5.8 million reports received and over 43,000 scams and 84,000 websites taken down since its inception in April 2020. To use the service, suspicious emails should be forwarded to: report@phishing.gov.uk.
As well as this, 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. All of this information is being used by the City of London Police, the National Cyber Security Centre and the National Crime Agency alongside crime reports to identify, disrupt and stop fraudsters.
The Government is also aware of the ongoing scams relating to Royal Mail and the Post Office. We are working closely alongside the City of London Police (the national lead force for fraud) and wider law enforcement to track and mitigate the risk to the public. 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.
Asked by: Baroness Altmann (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to protect the public from financial scams and fraud promoted by online platforms; whether such plans include preventing such platforms from profiting from fraudulent operators or scammers; and if so, how.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
My department has been considering how online advertising is regulated through its Online Advertising Programme, and will be consulting on this issue later this year. The government will set out its plans in the consultation.
Our aim is to foster fair, accountable and ethical online advertising that works for citizens, businesses and society as a whole. In particular, we want to ensure standards about the placement and content of advertising can be effectively applied and enforced online so that consumers have limited exposure to harmful or misleading advertising.
As part of our departure from the EU HM Treasury removed an exemption to the financial promotions regime available to online platforms for incoming electronic communications from the EU.
As a result of that change, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) is looking at the operations of the major online platforms to determine whether their communication of financial promotion is subject to the financial promotions restriction, and if so, whether they are compliant. Where they are not, the FCA will take action to ensure consumers are protected. HM Treasury is supporting the FCA in these conversations going forward.