As wire fraud emerges among the top crimes in the UK, the government is set to tackle the issue starting with cold calls.
The UK is set to prohibit cold calls promoting financial products like insurance and cryptocurrencies.
The plans of the UK's government were revealed by the news portal Bloomberg on May 2nd.
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As part of the new fraud strategy, the UK government announced the creation of 400 new jobs to bolster intelligence-led policing efforts.
The government is set to collaborate with the Office of Communications (Ofcom), the nation's telecoms regulator, to develop technology that fights against phone number "spoofing." It is believed that this technology should stop fraudsters from faking legitimate UK phone numbers.
According to a Bloomberg report, wire fraud has emerged as the most common crime in the UK, affecting 1 in 15 people. Therefore, the government aims to pass legislation that mandates financial institutions to reimburse authorized fraud victims.
Moreover, the January 29th report from the Bureau of Investigative Journalism revealed that malicious actors often choose the UK to establish their operations base, as it is cheap and does not require identification.
The UK government has been working to tighten its grip on cryptocurrency companies operating in the region by requiring all crypto asset businesses to register with the UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) under the Financial Services and Markets Act (FSMA) rules.
The FCA, however, has taken a strict approach to grant approvals, resulting in numerous crypto-related businesses remaining unregistered. The regulator is attempting to find a balance between investor security and fostering innovation in the industry.
UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has emphasized the devastating impact of scammers, vowing to combat them at every turn.
Scammers ruin lives in seconds, deceiving people in the most despicable ways in order to line their pockets. We will take the fight to these fraudsters, wherever they try to hide.
The government also plans to tackle methods like "SIM farms" that scammers use to reach large numbers of people simultaneously and will review the use of mass-texting services to prevent criminals from abusing the technology.
