On the 11th of July, the Joint Fraud Taskforce led by the Security Minister, Tom Tugendhat met to discuss measures to tackle fraud. The meeting included representatives from across the private sector and was primarily focused on driving forward the delivery of the commitments made under the Fraud Strategy, which was published on the 3rd of May 2023 and aims to reduce fraud by 10% on 2019 levels by December 2024.

At the meeting, discussions continued regarding the online fraud charter with the tech sector in response to the increased levels of fraud originating on social media platforms. The charter is intended to ensure that social media platforms take action to block scams, make it easier for users to report fraud and ensure that fraudulent content is removed quickly. The Security Minister himself, called on Tech Companies to implement stronger measures to tackle fraud ahead of the implementation of the Online Safety Bill. This focus from the Taskforce bodes well for the issue at hand, previous areas have seen a positive impact from initiatives such as this. For example, the telecommunications charter, developed by the Taskforce, has already resulted in massive action by the operators, with over 600 million scam texts blocked and vast numbers of scam calls filtered out before they can reach the public.

Anti-Fraud Champion Anthony Browne, who was in attendance at the meeting, stressed that collaboration with industry is key to blocking fraud at source and that he intends to continue this conversation with the tech sector to ensure they are doing everything in their power to disrupt the ‘callous fraudsters’ operating online and better protect their users.