Chi Onwurah – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chi Onwurah on 2015-10-20.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to address the rise in behavioural scamming.

Mike Penning

Fraudsters use a variety of methods to extract personal data from the public. This includes calling or emailing individuals, claiming to be from a trusted authority figure or organisation. Any person who believes they have been affected by telephone or email scams should report to Action Fraud, the national reporting centre for fraud and cybercrime. Action Fraud is operated by the City of London Police.

Through our Cyber Streetwise campaign we are helping the public understand how to protect themselves from fraud and cybercrime. This includes notifying them of the key threats and highlighting simple security measures to take.

Ofcom, the communications regulator in the UK, has worked closely with the Metropolitan Police Service, Action Fraud and landline providers to prevent criminals exploiting phone lines to trick and defraud members of the public. All landline providers have now reduced the time a call remains open after one party hangs up down to two seconds. This makes it much more difficult for criminals to exploit phone lines in this way.