· During the Covid pandemic fraud and online crime rose as criminals continued to use more sophisticated ways to scam hardworking people across the UK.
· That is why Andrew Selous MP welcomes the Government’s new anti-fraud campaign, taking tough action to crack down on fraud. This campaign builds on the Government’s long-term plan to tackle fraud that cut fraud and computer misuse by -8.2% per cent in Bedfordshire last year.
· The Government’s long-term plan to cut fraud is working, securing a safer, brighter future for the whole country.
South West Bedfordshire MP, Andrew Selous, welcomes the Government’s new long-term ‘Stop! Think Fraud’ campaign, delivering tough new anti-fraud messaging, raising public awareness on fraud safety advice in partnership with law enforcement, tech, banking, telecoms and third sector organisations.
This new campaign builds on the Government’s long-term Fraud Strategy set out by the Home Office in May 2023, committing to 52 ambitious actions to cut fraud by ten per cent by the end of this Parliament. Thanks to this Government’s long-term plan, fraud and computer misuse has fallen by 13 per cent in the last year according to the latest data from the Crime Survey of England and Wales.
Official data shows that the number of fraud and computer misuse incidents in Bedfordshire had fallen from 4,345 incidents to 3,989 incidents in the last year, a drop of -8.2 per cent, showing the Government’s long-term plan to stop fraud is working.
Since 2019, the Government has implemented a whole range of long-term reforms to tackle fraud by creating new national fraud squad with over 400 new investigators, banning SIM farms which are used by criminals to send thousands of scam texts and stopping cold calls for financial products so people cannot be duped by scammers.
The Government has also signed the world’s first Online Fraud Charter, delivering tough long-term action against fraud in partnership with 12 leading tech companies including Amazon, Facebook, Google and X (formerly Twitter).
Commenting, Andrew Selous MP said:
“Fraud is an awful blight on our society and can ruin lives so I welcome news that the Government’s crackdown on fraud has cut fraud referrals by -8.2% in Bedfordshire.
“The Government’s new ‘Stop! Think Fraud’ campaign will build on this excellent progress, raising public awareness on fraud safety and building on the Government’s long-term Fraud Strategy announced last year.
“This news shows the Government’s long-term plan to tackle fraud is working.”