Commons Sense

House of Commons · Ministers' Questions

Online Fraud

Monday 22 November 2021 · 2 questions

Summarised by AI from the official record, so it can contain mistakes.

Read the full transcript on Parliament.uk

At a glance

Answered 0 Partly answered 2 Not answered 0

Key points

  • Online fraud can cause serious financial and emotional harm to victims.
  • The draft Online Safety Bill aims to enhance abilities to tackle online fraud.
  • Referrals to the 7726 service help build intelligence on SMS fraudsters and can lead to take-downs.

Topics (select to filter)

Questions & Answers

Q1 James Davies Con
Crime & Law Enforcement Culture, Media & Sport
Context

The issue of online fraud is prevalent, causing serious harm to victims financially and emotionally.

Question

What steps her Department is taking to tackle online fraud. The draft Online Safety Bill will be one important tool to enhance our abilities in that.

Answer from Damian Hinds

Online fraud can cause very serious harm to victims, both financial and emotional. We are determined to protect the public from these crimes and to go after those that commit them. The draft Online Safety Bill will be one important tool to enhance our abilities in that.

Partly answered

Not addressed: Did not provide specific steps or commitments on how the department is tackling online fraud beyond mentioning the Online Safety Bill.

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Q2 James Davies Con
Crime & Law Enforcement Culture, Media & Sport
Context

Ofcom allows victims of spam text messages to forward them for reporting via the number 7726, which helps build intelligence on SMS fraudsters.

Question

I thank my right hon. Friend for that update. Ofcom allows those who receive spam text messages to forward them to a service, 7726, to report the receipt of those messages. How will the law enforcement agencies use the data acquired to locate and to punish the perpetrators of those crimes?

Answer from Damian Hinds

I am grateful to my hon. Friend for highlighting the 7726 service, because referrals to that help to build up the intelligence on SMS fraudsters or scam texters and can help to lead to take-downs. It is really important that law enforcement works both with regulators and directly with individual telecoms companies to protect victims and go after the criminals responsible.

Partly answered

Not addressed: Did not provide specific mechanisms or timelines for using data from 7726 reports to locate and punish perpetrators of SMS scams.

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