A group of banks and other businesses with the consumer watchdog Which?, is calling on the new Labour Government to provide the leadership necessary to ensure more businesses can better share intelligence to detect fraud and to protect their customers.
The sharing of fraud intelligence is key to getting ahead of organised crime groups that can blight the lives of so many consumers, say Barclays, BT, Mobile UK, Nationwide, NatWest, Starling, Three UK, UK Finance, Virgin Media O2 and Vodafone. Fraud accounts for around 40 per cent of all crimes in England and Wales, and figures from UK Finance revealed that criminals stole over £1 billion through unauthorised and authorised fraud last year.
The group says it’s concerned that individual companies, law enforcement agencies and government are not working collaboratively enough to share information on how fraudsters can exploit gaps in their systems. This allows scammers to deploy the same tactics, across multiple channels. The group says that by sharing fraud indicators businesses will have more information to help them recognise an attack before it happens, meaning customers will be better protected.
Barriers deter business from sharing data, the group warns; created by worries of breaching data protection law, and legal concerns over competition. They say that the Government can tackle these barriers through setting standards and clarifying guidance to legally share data. Otherwise, they warn, industry faces a painfully slow, costly and high risk approach to an environment where fraudsters flourish with high speed tactics.
The group is calling on the new Government to:
Make clear that tackling fraud is a national priority and is essential to its wider crime strategy;
Put in place central leadership able to coordinate initiatives across government to deliver a joined up approach to tackling fraud;
Lead the taskforce to share fraud data, which must work across industry sectors and deliver technical solutions to generate a data application that can be used to prevent fraud across UK digital channels.
Rocio Concha, Which? Director of Policy and Advocacy, said: “Fraud continues to blight the lives of so many consumers across the country, with devastating consequences both financially and emotionally. For too long, the actors that will be part of the fight to combat this terrible crime have been operating in silos – so this commitment from banks and telecoms providers to work together to share data is a significant step forward in the right direction.
“We urge the new government to make fraud a national priority and to ensure that businesses can share data and best practices with each other to bolster their defences and ultimately keep their customers safe.”
As featured in the July edition of Professional Security Magazine, the counter-fraud trade association Cifas on the eve of the 2024 general election campaign urged 10 Downing Street to commit to reforms. Last month, Cifas reported a sharp rise in criminals targeting the telecoms sector to carry out facility takeover fraud.
