New scam measures from the Government a step in the right direction

Finally. It feels like the government has woken up and will take the right, measured action to fight one of the greatest scourges of modern life: scams.

It’s just a shame it took so long. The fraud balloon has swelled into a monster and small pinpricks were not enough. It takes a torpedo to deflate it.

Every day our e-mail box is filled with more cases of financial fraud. We feel that the past decade has been frustratingly slow in tackling the problem at its source.

Seven years ago, This is Money launched a Beat the Scammers section of the website.

We’ve been constantly warning about this obviously huge and growing problem as more of us have been forced to live our financial lives digitally.

The goal of the Beat the Scammers was to educate our readers as much as possible.

Our idea was that if the authorities didn’t provide meaningful help, we’d take matters into our own hands and report on the latest schemes as they emerge – to help people avoid them.

Also that year I wrote a hard-hitting piece for the Daily Mail about how Action Fraud just wasn’t fit for purpose.

In fact, only 1 in 500 fraud cases was investigated by the agency at the time. Essentially, it is a reporting agency that we found gave false hope to victims that they would ever receive scam refunds.

Now Action Fraud is being phased out to be replaced by a new £30 million service, which – crucially – includes a portal to keep a scam report, if you ever need to file one.

Let’s hope this new service hits the mark.

To really tackle the scam scourge, all banks, major tech, social media and telecom companies need to be fully on board to work together and sing the same anthem.

It’s a huge task, but if we succeed, maybe, just maybe, we can finally get to grips with the problem.

There have been some notable moves in recent years. For example, the industry-backed 159 phone number is a simple idea to stop fraudsters.

Most major banks have also introduced stronger two-factor authentication and better processes when making online payments, namely checking whether the payee matches the account number and sending out fraud alerts in the process.

Meanwhile, police smashed the iSpoof ring late last year.

That gang made 3.5 million calls targeting Britons and defrauded them in large numbers. That sting shows a willingness to fight organized fraud gangs and I’m sure more investigations are underway to bust more rings.

The problem is that 70% of fraud in the UK originates abroad or has an international link. Once the money runs out, it’s nearly impossible to track it down.

And the fact is that consumer fraud has gotten out of hand – it now accounts for two in five crimes in England and Wales and is said to be a £7bn a year problem.

It’s the fastest growing crime and this all feels inevitable – a lot more could have been done to stop it.

The measures announced by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak include cracking down on ‘sim farms’ – where criminals can spread scams and phone calls for little money – as well as banning cold calls on all financial products.

Plans are also coming in from regulator Ofcom to stop scammers from ‘spoofing’ legitimate phone numbers, tricking victims into thinking they are being contacted by a legitimate organization.

All of these moves could help push the £7bn figure to the pinnacle, never to be repeated again.

But the proof will certainly be in the pudding, if the government manages to get all the big players in the same direction, there is a fighting chance.