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British consumers were scammed out of a record amount last year and police are struggling under the workload, according to the director general of the National Economic Crime Centre.
Graeme Biggar said criminals had found it easy to bombard the public with scam texts, emails and phone calls trying to steal their money.
Fraudsters used the pandemic to steal a record £479m from almost 150,000 victims in 2020. Telegraph Money looks at how you can avoid the same fate.
Bill to be published today includes new measures to uphold democratic debate online
Financial fraud on social media and dating apps included to protect people from romance scams and fake investment opportunities
New internet laws will be published today in the draft Online Safety Bill to protect children online and tackle some of the worst abuses on social media, including racist hate crimes.
Ministers have added landmark new measures to the Bill to safeguard freedom of expression and democracy, ensuring necessary online protections do not lead to unnecessary censorship.
The draft Bill marks a milestone in the Government’s fight to make the internet safe. Despite the fact that we are now using the internet more than ever, over three quarters of UK adults are concerned about going online, and fewer parents feel the benefits outweigh the risks of their children being online – falling from 65 per cent in 2015 to 50 per cent in 2019.
Landmark laws to keep children safe, stop racial hate and protect democracy online published
The Online Safety Bill will help protect young people and clamp down on racist abuse online, while safeguarding freedom of expression.
From:
12 May 2021
Bill to be published today includes new measures to uphold democratic debate online
Financial fraud on social media and dating apps included to protect people from romance scams and fake investment opportunities
New internet laws will be published today in the draft Online Safety Bill to protect children online and tackle some of the worst abuses on social media, including racist hate crimes.
New Government plans to crack down on harmful content online risk stifling the free press, silencing marginalised voices and introducing state-backed censorship on a scale never seen in a liberal democracy , campaigners have warned.
The proposed Online Safety Bill is intended to make tech giants accountable for harmful content on their platforms.
But instead of just taking down illegal hate speech, campaigners warned that in its draft form it could also be used to target wider freedom of expression including from the media – and could even result in blanket bans for publishers.
The draft bill hands more power to Ofcom, Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden and social media platforms to regulate what news users see on social media.