Source · Select Committees · Home Affairs Committee
Recommendation 58
58
Accepted
Deliver commitments from Fraud Strategy, including online fraud charter, by year-end.
Recommendation
We support the commitment in the Government’s Fraud Strategy to “make the tech sector commit to protect their customers through legislation and voluntary commitments” and “help banks slow down suspicious payments.” We urge the Home Office to deliver on those commitments as soon as possible. For example, a new online fraud charter was to be delivered by the end of Summer 2023. We expect to see this by the end of 2023 at the latest. (Paragraph 151) Policing priorities 67
Government Response Summary
The government accepted the recommendation, confirming the Online Fraud Charter was published on 30 November 2023, meeting the committee's deadline, and detailed its multi-faceted commitments to combat fraud through the tech sector.
Government Response
Accepted
HM Government
Accepted
The Online Fraud Charter was published on 30 November 2023. The Charter is split into several areas of detailed commitments. It includes actions focused on: a) Blocking frauds from occurring in the first place. b) Improved reporting structures and faster takedowns of harmful content and users. c) Making sure advertisers are who they say they are. d) Greater collaboration with law enforcement and other partners to drive further intelligence sharing, transparency, public communications and horizon scanning. In practice, this means a greater degree of filtering out and removing of fraudulent content, heightened verification for users using a range of services from dating apps and marketplaces to potential advertisers and raised awareness and education for users. It will ensure that signatory companies make fraud easier to report online. When content or users are found to be fraudulent, immediate and decisive enforcement action will be taken. The Government is also working with the Insurance Sector to deliver an Insurance Charter by Spring 2024 which will focus on reducing insurance fraud. We are also delivering through existing sector charters with the retail banking and telecommunications sectors.