World leaders vow united front against fraudsters at London summit

11 March 2024, 17:54

Global Fraud Summit
Global Fraud Summit. Picture: PA

James Cleverly hosted the event at Lancaster House.

The Home Secretary has hailed a pledge by world leaders to unite to fight fraud as a “massive step forward” in efforts to crack down on the crime.

The agreement was signed as representatives from governments of the Five Eyes intelligence partnership – the UK, US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand – as well as those from France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Singapore and South Korea attended a summit in London.

James Cleverly, who hosted the event at Lancaster House, told broadcasters the move was to make sure “international crime has an international response” as the countries promised to fight fraud together.

Global Fraud Summit
Home Secretary James Cleverly (centre) was joined by delegates from governments around the world at the summit in London on Monday (Stefan Rousseau/PA)

The National Crime Agency (NCA) and US law enforcement bodies including the FBI and the Secret Service also vowed to target scam call centres.

Mr Cleverly said: “We’ve been clear that the global community needs to unite to fight fraud head on and this communique is a massive step forward.”

Formally opening the summit, he warned fraud was “evolving” and fraudsters were “taking advantage” of modern technology – with much of the crime taking place online.

Although acknowledging fraud was a “huge challenge”, Mr Cleverly told delegates: “We mustn’t be despondent, we mustn’t be fatalistic,” adding that “collective efforts” to grip the crime will make sure fraudsters do not succeed.

As he stressed the UK’s commitment to crack down on fraud, he said: “We won’t ever be complacent or take our eye off the ball.”

NCA director general Graeme Biggar told the summit fraud is one of his “biggest worries” among all the serious and organised crime threats he is responsible for tackling in his role.

“That’s because of the scale of the threat and the mismatch between that and our response at the moment. It is not where we need to be,” he added.

Fraud represented 38% of recorded crime in the UK last year, affecting three million victims and costing them £2.5 billion, he said.

Interpol has warned fraud is often perpetrated by organised criminal groups, including human traffickers, who force people to work in scam centres which target potential victims across the world, while a forthcoming threat assessment is expected to show a concerning rise in fraud in all corners of the globe.

Around 70% of fraud offences in the UK have ties to international criminals, with £3 billion lost to overseas accounts last year.

As part of the international agreement each nation recognised fraud as an “organised, transnational threat” that has become “one of the most prevalent global issues” and agreed to work  and will work to a four-point structure to “protect citizens and target organised criminals” in a bid to combat fraud, according to the Home Office.

Countries have promised to share more intelligence and resources as part of efforts, as well as working with banks and other businesses to prevent fraud.

The communique recognises that the impact of fraud is “devastating and universal across the world”, even if the specific types of crime vary, and paves the way for international law enforcement bodies to work more closely, the department said.

Nations will look at ways of recovering illicitly gained assets and returning funds to victims in different countries. Leaders will also explore using sanctions and visa bans in a bit to disrupt organised crime groups.

Tech firms including Amazon, Apple, Google, Meta, TikTok and LinkedIn were also in attendance at the first summit of its kind, alongside banks HSBC, NatWest, Santander, and other financial organisations including Visa.

Leaders made clear social media companies and other online forums are expected to take further action to prevent fraud, including identifying and removing fraudulent posts, the Home Office added.

The event continues on Tuesday.

By Press Association

More Technology News

See more More Technology News

A laptop displaying a ‘Matrix’-style screensaver

MPs: Ministers must give protections to creative sector amid AI copyright fears

French President Emmanuel Macron addresses the audience in a closing speech at the Grand Palais during the Artificial Intelligence Action Summit in Paris

Refusal to sign AI declaration was ‘based on what’s best for British people’

Someone at a computer keyboard

Airbnb issues warning over holiday scams fuelled by AI and social media

An HSBC branch

HSBC online and mobile banking working again after service outage

HSBC on growth across the UK

HSBC hit by outage as users complain of being unable to log on

The summit in Paris (Michel Euler/AP)

UK did not sign AI communique over ‘opportunity and security’ concerns – No 10

Sky Glass Gen 2

Sky unveils second generation Sky Glass TV promising ‘better picture and sound’

Technology Stock

UK announces sanctions against Russian cyber crime network

Participants in the AI Action Summit pose for a group photo at the Grand Palais in Paris

UK appears not to have signed leaders’ declaration at AI summit

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman

Sam Altman reiterates OpenAI ‘not for sale’ after Elon Musk-led bid

A young girl uses the TikTok app on a smartphone.

Data of dead British children may have been deleted, TikTok boss says

Elon Musk

Elon Musk offers $97bn to buy ChatGPT-maker OpenAI

Alesha Dixon (Jordan Pettitt/PA)

Alesha Dixon working ‘super hard’ to stop children having phones

A quarter of those who have fallen victim say they blamed themselves (PA)

Almost half of children aged between eight and 17 ‘have been scammed online’

Samaritans said the Act does not go far enough (PA)

Online Safety Act ‘missing vital opportunity’ on suicide content

Former prime minister Rishi Sunak with Sam Altman

OpenAI boss Sam Altman says DeepSeek did ‘nice work’ with AI chatbot