Fake lottery scam that's tricked thousands into handing cash to foreign gangs
"Parasite" international fraud gangs are "feasting" on Britain because of Tory inaction, Labour warned.
New figures show three-quarters of the fastest-growing type of fraud is carried out from overseas. The Government is accused of failing to demand foreign countries tackle gangs responsible for tens of thousands of offences in the UK.
A previously unpublished police intelligence report warned that three-quarters of advance fee fraud was committed by international criminals. This accounts for an estimated 409,000 offences per year - one in eight of all reported frauds.
Advance fee fraud is when people are encouraged to pay a small amount upfront to release a larger sum they are told is due to them - such as a lottery prize, bank refund, tax rebate or inheritance.
Labour's Shadow Attorney General, Emily Thornberry, said: "The parasites behind these international fraud gangs are feasting on Britain, and all the government can offer in response is another global summit We should be demanding that concrete action is taken now by overseas countries to shut down the gangs targeting the UK, and where we are negotiating trade access to our market with those countries, we should ask them to work with us to tackle fraud as part of any deals.
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"Under the Tories, fraud has become the most commonly-experienced crime in the UK, with thousands of working people and pensioners being robbed of their hard-earned wages and savings every single day. That has to stop."
An internal memo from the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau (NFIB), obtained by Labour under the Freedom of Information Act, found 775 of advance fee frauds are exclusively carried out from overseas.
The Government last month hosted representatives from 12 tech companies including Facebook and TikTok in London, where a new online fraud charter was signed in a bid to combat internet scams. Earlier this year the Government released its fraud strategy, which includes measures to allow banks longer delays to payment processing so as to allow for suspect payments to be investigated.
Security minister Tom Tugendhat accused Labour of appearing to be "behind the curve" and argued the Government has taken "concrete action to crack down on fraud". He said: "We've joined forces with leading tech companies to develop and commit to the online fraud charter - the first agreement of its kind anywhere in the world.
"We've launched a national fraud squad to pursue the most sophisticated and harmful fraudsters. And we've deployed our world-class intelligence agencies to hunt down fraudsters wherever they are in the world. Meanwhile, Labour continue to shout from the side-lines without coming up with a proper plan."
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