The UK government intends to pass laws to compensate victims of authorized crypto fraud and cooperate with Ofcom to prevent phone number “spoofing.”
In order to prevent fraud, the United Kingdom is planning to outlaw cold calling for financial items, such as insurance and cryptocurrencies. According to the National Crime Agency, fraud costs the nation about £7 billion ($8.7 billion) per year.
In order to modernize its approach to intelligence-led enforcement, the U.K. government revealed its new fraud strategy and promised 400 new posts. In order to combat phone number “spoofing,” which would stop fraudsters from imitating authentic U.K. phone numbers, the government will collaborate with the telecoms regulator, the Office of Communications, also known as Ofcom.
Bloomberg claims that, with 1 in 15 victims, wire fraud is now the most common crime in the United Kingdom. The government wants to pass rules requiring financial institutions to compensate victims of sanctioned fraud in order to ensure that more fraud victims receive their money back.
According to a report issued on January 29 by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism and the Observer, organized criminal syndicates are using the U.K. as their operational headquarters due to the area’s “lenient regulations.” In the UK, starting a business only costs 12 British pounds ($14.85). Since there is no requirement for identification, it is simple for scammers to register there and establish phony legitimacy.
The U.K. government has been making an effort to crack down on Bitcoin companies doing business there. According to the current Financial Services and Markets Act regulations governing the market for digital assets, the U.K. Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) required that all businesses involved in crypto asset activity register with it.
Also Read: New Crypto Regulations With A Consumer Protection Objective Are Proposed By The UK Finance Ministry
However, because of the FCA’s strict approval policies, many businesses related to cryptocurrencies are currently operating as unregistered entities. The regulator is attempting to strike a compromise between fostering sector innovation and offering investors a secure environment.
According to a statement by U.K. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, fraudsters “ruin lives in seconds, deceiving people in the most despicable ways in order to line their pockets.” He vowed to confront the fraudsters no matter where they intended to hide. The government also pledged to discontinue the techniques that scammers sometimes employ to contact large numbers of people at once, such as “SIM farms.” To keep these tools out of the hands of criminals, the usage of mass messaging services will also be examined.
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