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11 tech giants, including Match Group, Facebook, Google, Snapchat, and others, have agreed to a new charter with the UK government to enhance measures to tackle online fraud. Signatories have agreed to implement changes within 6 months.
Published today by the UK government, the ‘Online Fraud Charter’ is a voluntary agreement where tech companies “show that they recognise the risk of fraud and financial exploitation to the UK public on their platform” and commit to making improvements.
The document lays out 9 key areas where these tech firms can step up their work against fraud:
- Blocking: Deploy measures to detect and block fraudulent material
- Reporting: Have a simple and quick route to report fraudulent material
- Takedowns: Take action against fraudulent content and users straight away
- Advertising: Deploy measures to protect people from fraudulent adverts
- Law Enforcement: Have dedicated liaisons who will respond to law enforcement requests
- Intelligence Sharing: Engage with initiatives to quickly share information about frauds
- Transparency: Provide information about fraud risks and what is being done to address them
- Comms: Deliver simple messaging to support the public to recognise and avoid online fraud
- Horizon Scanning: Contribute to horizon scanning exercises to stay ahead of the threat
The UK government is expecting the charter’s stated recommendations to be put in place within 6 months, with reviews expected after this period.
The document lays out the various fraudulent behaviours that bad actors can use online platforms to accomplish. For example, stating that in the case of romance fraud, “criminals go to great lengths to exploit online platforms to target often vulnerable individuals, using social media and dating apps to find and contact victims”.
The impact and enablers of online fraud are diverse, so addressing the issue will help mitigate other crimes including “theft, extortion, sexually motivated crimes, abuse and more”, the charter states.
“Fraud is now the most common crime in the UK, with online scammers targeting the most vulnerable in society”, said UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, in a statement seen by Reuters.
“By joining forces with these tech giants we will continue to crack down on fraudsters, making sure they have nowhere to hide online”, he added.
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