Tech bosses ‘failing to halt online scams’

TECH firms have been accused of not doing enough to prevent online scams as a report revealed UK consumers have lost £750million to financial fraudsters in the first half of this year.

MPs told bosses at Facebook, Google, Amazon and eBay that the problem had got out of hand, accusing them of ‘enabling’ fraud.

‘Google’s made a mockery of the regulator of this country, by expecting it to take down fraudulent stuff on the site and have to pay for it,’ Labour MP Rushanara Ali said during the Treasury select committee hearing on economic crime.

The firms said they were investing in fraud prevention and collaborating with the government and Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).

‘We’re actually the first line of defence, rather than an enabler,’ Gaon Hart, head of public policy for customer trust at Amazon UK & Ireland, told the committee.

Google has offered the FCA $1.5million (£1.1million) in advertising credits to help cover the cost of fraud awareness campaigns. ‘ We want them to take up those ad credits,’ said Amanda Storey, Google’s director of trust and safety for Europe. The tech firm told MPs that it intends to offer $3.5million (£2.5million) of advertisement credits to other scam awareness campaigns.

Google has prohibited investment ads that are not FCA-authorised – including for gold and cryptocurrencies – since September 6 this year, she added.

Neither Google nor Facebook were able to say if they had ever compensated customers for losses from fraud, though Amazon said it had.

Meanwhile a 30 per cent surge in fraud attacks during the first half of 2021 poses a ‘ national security threat’ and needs government-coordinated action to tackle it, the country’s main banking body UK Finance warned.

According to its report, fraud rocketed during the pandemic as more people switched to digital shopping and banking.