Government cracks down on fraud: what new measures mean for you

All cold calls to be banned, while ‘number spoofing’ will also be subject to a crackdown by the Government.

Financial scams are rife.

Many of us will get at least a couple of calls, emails or texts each week purporting to be from a trustworthy organisation, with the sole aim of tricking us into sharing our personal details or handing over money.

Indeed, impersonation scams alone saw Brits lose an eye-watering £177.6 million in 2022, according to new data from UK Finance.

Now the Government has announced new measures aimed at making life tougher for the scammers.

Anti-fraud strategy: What is the Government doing?

The Government has set out three main steps it is taking which will cut off scammers at the source.

Cold calls on all financial products are being banned outright, meaning that anytime you get an unexpected call about some sort of money deal you will know that it’s dodgy.

That’s not the only thing being banned. ‘SIM farms’, which are devices that allow fraudsters to send scam texts to thousands of people at the same time, are also to be outlawed. 

Finally, the Government is to work with Ofcom, the regulator, to make it harder for scammers to ‘number spoof’.

This is where a call appears to be coming from a regular UK number, such as that of your bank, when it’s actually coming from elsewhere.

Alongside these measures, a new National Fraud Squad is being launched, alongside the establishment of a new reporting centre.

The Government says it will be working with tech companies to make it easier to report dodgy messages, while banks are to be given more time to process payments, with the hope of cutting out some suspicious ones before they go through.

Will the new anti-fraud measures make a difference?

It’s welcome that the Government is taking some action on financial frauds, and banning cold calling around money products is a solid place to start.

Equally, number spoofing has undoubtedly played a role in convincing increasing numbers of us to believe that the call we have received really is from our bank or some other reputable organisation, rather than a scam centre overseas, making us more likely to hand over our cash.

If Ofcom and the Government can take tangible action here in making it harder for these fraudsters to dupe us in this way, then that can only be a good thing.

However, it’s disappointing that it has taken this long for the Government to take these steps.

Cold calling around pensions was banned back in 2019 ‒ quite why it has taken a further four years for this to be expanded to cover other financial products is beyond explanation.

It’s also important to accept that such a ban can never be entirely effective.

Even with the pension cold calling ban, there are still scammers making these calls.

They have simply found ways around it. 

There are lessons to learn here for the authorities; if we are really to clamp down on scammers then the Government and anti-fraud bodies will need to be adaptable, move with the times and find ways to tackle the new techniques that will inevitably be adopted by scammers as they look for other ways to con us out of our cash.

Taking action to protect ourselves

Unfortunately, we simply cannot rely on the authorities to tackle this completely themselves.

This is demonstrated by figures from the Government, obtained by financial advisory firm Quilter through a Freedom of Information request.

It found that since 2015 an average of just 29% of pension fraud reports end up being passed onto the police.

Even with the Government pledging to spend vast sums on setting up new reporting centres and fraud squads, the reality is that when these crimes are committed, it won’t be easy to get justice ‒ or your money back.

That’s why it is so important for all of us to be on our guard so that we can spot any suspicious communication, whether that’s in the form of a call, an email or a text message.