Online Fraud Explodes In UK, John Glenn Proposes Anti-Fraud Online Bill

John Glen proposes the Online Anti-fraud Bill. (photo: twitter)

JAKARTA - Britain's Minister for Financial Services, John Glen, told lawmakers that the UK government is now open to enacting legislation to stop the explosion of online fraudulent advertising that has become a significant source of fraud in the country in recent years.

Online fraud victim groups and campaigners have called for fraudulent advertising to be included in the government's planned Online Security Bill, which currently only covers user-generated content.

"We sympathize with that very much," Glen told the Treasury Select Committee, as reported by Reuters. "This is a huge problem. This is a significant opportunity without a better solution."

A record of UK online fraud reached 754 million pounds (Rp14.3 trillion) stolen in the first six months of this year. This figure is up 30% from the same period in 2020, according to data from banking industry body UK Finance. In fact, this figure is up more than 60% compared to 2017, when they started compiling the loss figures.

Several government departments were involved in efforts to stop online fraud, which raised concerns among committee members that the solutions needed were too slow to emerge.

"You're very good at describing how difficult it all is, but what exactly are you going to do?" said MP Angela Eagle, quoted by Reuters.

Glen said the finance ministry was working closely with the ministry of digital, culture, media, and sport (DCMS) - which is also looking into the issue of online fraud - to try and find the best solution.

The Finance Committee had previously told representatives from Facebook, Google, Amazon, and eBay that they needed to do more to combat this online scam.

Cybersecurity and bank experts say the UK has become a global target for fraud attacks due to its relatively light policing of fraud-related crimes, its super-fast payment infrastructure, and the world's most widely spoken English language.

"This is an absolute priority. I'm not satisfied where we are on this," Glen said, adding that prevention needed to be a big part of the response.

"The challenge is how we can come up with effective interventions that will actually suppress this," Glen said.