“Parasite” worldwide fraud gangs are “feasting” on Britain due to Tory inaction, Labour warned.
New figures present three-quarters of the fastest-growing kind of fraud is carried out from abroad. The Government is accused of failing to demand overseas international locations sort out gangs accountable for tens of hundreds of offences within the UK.
A beforehand unpublished police intelligence report warned that three-quarters of advance charge fraud was dedicated by worldwide criminals. This accounts for an estimated 409,000 offences per yr – one in eight of all reported frauds.
Advance charge fraud is when individuals are inspired to pay a small quantity upfront to launch a bigger sum they’re instructed is because of them – resembling a lottery prize, financial institution refund, tax rebate or inheritance.
Labour’s Shadow Attorney General, Emily Thornberry, mentioned: “The parasites behind these international fraud gangs are feasting on Britain, and all the government can offer in response is another global summit We should be demanding that concrete action is taken now by overseas countries to shut down the gangs targeting the UK, and where we are negotiating trade access to our market with those countries, we should ask them to work with us to tackle fraud as part of any deals.
“Under the Tories, fraud has turn into probably the most commonly-experienced crime within the UK, with hundreds of working folks and pensioners being robbed of their hard-earned wages and financial savings each single day. That has to cease.”
An internal memo from the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau (NFIB), obtained by Labour under the Freedom of Information Act, found 775 of advance fee frauds are exclusively carried out from overseas.
The Government last month hosted representatives from 12 tech companies including Facebook and TikTok in London, where a new online fraud charter was signed in a bid to combat internet scams. Earlier this year the Government released its fraud strategy, which includes measures to allow banks longer delays to payment processing so as to allow for suspect payments to be investigated.
Security minister Tom Tugendhat accused Labour of appearing to be “behind the curve” and argued the Government has taken “concrete motion to crack down on fraud”. He said: “We’ve joined forces with main tech firms to develop and decide to the net fraud constitution – the primary settlement of its variety wherever on the earth.
“We’ve launched a national fraud squad to pursue the most sophisticated and harmful fraudsters. And we’ve deployed our world-class intelligence agencies to hunt down fraudsters wherever they are in the world. Meanwhile, Labour continue to shout from the side-lines without coming up with a proper plan.”