UK plans to shift fraud fight onto telecoms, tech companies

The British government on Monday unveiled a new fraud strategy that shifts more responsibility for stopping scams onto telecom companies, technology platforms and financial firms, but critics question whether it goes far enough. 

The plan is the latest effort to curb what has become the most common crime in the United Kingdom. Official surveys estimate fraud accounts for about 40% of recorded crime in England and Wales, and police say more than two-thirds of those cases are cyber-enabled.

Pressure for a stronger response has grown as fraud has surged across the country. Government figures show millions of incidents each year, with about 7% of adults and a quarter of all businesses reporting they have been targeted.

Critics have long argued the government’s response has lagged behind the scale of the problem. In 2022, Parliament’s Treasury Committee called for “a wholesale change in philosophy and practice,” noting fraud accounted for roughly 40% of reported crime but received only about 2% of police funding.

Some industry groups say the new strategy still does not go far enough to hold technology companies accountable. Bernadette Smith, head of fraud at Starling Bank, called the plan “disappointing,” saying it fails to require major platforms to take greater responsibility for scams occurring on their services.

New initiatives

Authorities have recently begun restructuring how fraud cases are handled. Earlier this year police launched Report Fraud, a national reporting system run by the City of London Police to replace the widely-criticized Action Fraud service. The platform analyzes reports from victims and the private sector to identify fraud patterns and share alerts to drive disruptive actions as well as law enforcement investigations.

Jonathan Frost, director of global advisory for EMEA at BioCatch, said the system will only be effective if the information it collects is reliable. “High-quality data is essential,” he said, warning that online reporting platforms must ensure the information they collect can be trusted and analyzed quickly.

The new strategy reflects a broader push by officials to shift fraud prevention “upstream,” targeting the systems that enable scams rather than focusing only on individual criminals.

The approach echoes a similar shift underway in Washington, where a recent White House proposal to create a cybercrime victim restoration program also emphasizes coordinated action across government and the private sector to disrupt organized online fraud.

A centerpiece of the British strategy is a new Online Crime Centre, described by officials as a “disruption hub” designed to target the infrastructure used by organized fraud networks.

Backed by more than £30 million ($40.3 million) and expected to launch next month, the center will bring together government departments and agencies including the National Crime Agency and GCHQ alongside companies from the financial, telecom and technology sectors.

The unit will share data to identify accounts, websites and phone numbers used by criminal groups and shut them down at scale, officials said — blocking scam text messages, freezing accounts and removing fraudulent social media profiles.

Frost said the effort will depend on how quickly companies can exchange threat information. “Sharing threat data in real time is a day-one requirement,” he said. “Criminals move fast, so responses need to be automated and happen in milliseconds, not hours.”

Authorities say the center will target organized crime groups running large international scam operations. Jordan Wain, U.K. public policy lead at Chainalysis, said much of the fraud targeting Britain originates abroad.

“With around 75% of fraud against U.K. individuals and businesses instigated or facilitated from overseas, we cannot treat this as a local crime issue — it’s a transnational security challenge that demands coordinated, intelligence-led action,” he said.

Banks have long argued that many scams originate outside the financial system on social media platforms, telecom networks and online advertising services, and that those sectors should play a larger role in preventing fraud.

The strategy stops short of imposing sweeping new legal obligations, instead emphasizing partnerships and voluntary cooperation with industry.

The strategy also proposes creating a national system to trace scam calls across telecom networks by early 2028. Investigators often struggle to identify the origin of fraudulent calls because they pass through multiple carriers and internet-based voice services, and scammers frequently spoof phone numbers or route calls through overseas intermediaries.

Throughout the strategy, the document points to existing laws that place responsibilities on private companies, although these are not yet fully being implemented. The Online Safety Act requires large technology platforms to address fraudulent advertising and scam content, while the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act created a corporate offense for failing to prevent fraud.

The government also plans to expand support for victims, including a Fraud Victims Charter expected in 2027 and a joint unit between Trading Standards and law enforcement aimed at disrupting fraud operations and recovering stolen assets.