The Treasury Committee has called for “additional government action” to combat fraud and scammers in a new report published on economic crime.

The report, which was unanimously agreed by the cross-party Committee of MPs, has urged the government to legislate against online fraudulent adverts and to consider whether online giants should reimburse those who fall victim to scams on their platforms.

In a series of recommendations, the Committee also suggested the government urgently legislates to make reimbursing victims of authorised push payment fraud mandatory – repeating a call made by the previous Treasury Committee in 2019.

Commenting on the recommendations, Chair of the Treasury Committee, Mel Stride, noted that fraud has “soared” since the start of the pandemic.

“As MPs we’ve heard heartbreaking stories of individuals who have fallen victim to these criminals and lost large sums of money,” Stride said. “While the government have made some progress in this area, we’re today calling on them to push harder and act faster on the growing fraud epidemic.”

The report has also called for law enforcement to be “appropriately resourced” to tackle the scale of the problem, and for proper regulation to be introduced to protect consumers from fraud and money laundering in the cryptoasset industry.

Furthermore, the Committee also advocated for Companies House reform in order to prevent fraudsters from hiding their identities behind UK businesses to launder money and conduct crime – pushing for the government to set out the legislation it is currently working on which could be included in an Economic Crime Bill.

“Some of our recommendations, such as legislating against online scam adverts, can be implemented quickly,” Stride added.

“Others, including crypto regulation and Companies House reform, will require a longer-term approach. Taken together, our proposals give the UK a fighting chance to get back on the front foot and stop these scammers in their tracks.”

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