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鈥� Fraud now accounts for over 40% of crime. It costs us nearly 拢7 billion a year and we know these proceeds are funding organised crime and terror. What鈥檚 more, new technologies are making these scams easier to do and harder to police.

It鈥檚 time to take the fight to the scammers and fraudsters, and put an end to these crimes which can devastate lives and livelihoods within seconds.

Today, we鈥檙e launching our new plan to tackle fraud.

This is how the new measures will affect you.

We鈥檙e going to stop scams reaching people in the first place

Modern technology has opened up new ways for criminals to bombard people with a barrage of fake calls, texts, emails and WhatsApp messages.

Here鈥檚 how we鈥檙e going to stop it:

• We will outlaw so-called 鈥淪IM farms鈥�, technical devices that allow criminals to scam texts to thousands of people at the same time
• We will work with Ofcom to stop more cases of number 鈥榮poofing鈥�, where scammers impersonate UK numbers and trick people into thinking they鈥檙e speaking to banks, telephone companies or other legitimate businesses
• We will ban cold calls on all financial products, so that anyone who receives calls trying to sell them products such as crypto currency schemes or insurance will know it鈥檚 a scam

We will bring more fraudsters to justice

Here鈥檚 how we鈥檒l make sure the scammers responsible face up to their crimes:

• By launching a new National Fraud Squad led by the National Crime Agency and the City of London Police 鈥� backed by 400 new posts
• We鈥檒l step up work with international partners and make greater use of the UK鈥檚 intelligence community to identify and disrupt more fraudsters overseas

We will empower people to better protect themselves

We know that often when you fall victim to a scam, people feel upset, panicked, or embarrassed about being caught out, or worried about whether they鈥檒l ever get their money back.

Here鈥檚 how we鈥檒l help protect you:

• By investing 拢30 million in a state-of-the-art reporting centre which will be up and running in the year
• We鈥檙e also working with tech companies to make it as simple as possible to report fraud online. Regardless of which social media platform you are on, you should be able to find the 鈥榬eport鈥� button within a single click
• Looking at giving banks more time to process payments, to allow suspicious payments to be investigated and stopping people from falling victim to fraudsters

Our plan will help protect you and your loved ones from these scams and the predators who perpetrate them. The time has come to put the fraudsters out of business. And that鈥檚 what I鈥檓 determined to do.鈥�

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak