Report authors: Sophie Davies, Director of Research | Manon Roberts, Senior Manager | Freya Smith, Analyst

Final report (PDF): Turning the tide: A plan to tackle online fraud (PDF)

Crest Insights has today published a new report calling for the establishment of a Fraud Commissioner role and for all economic crime – including fraud – to sit with a dedicated cabinet minister. 

The report, Turning the tide: A plan to tackle online fraud, conducted in partnership with the Police Foundation and Birkbeck, University of London (Institute for Crime and Justice Policy Research), and with funding from the Dawes Trust, highlights the need for a renewed focus on online fraud within government strategy. The new roles would provide oversight and leadership to an area of crime which is currently under-prioritised and overlooked. 

The authors also call for the introduction of an annual levy on online platforms which would then be ring-fenced to go towards efforts to prevent and tackle fraud. The Fraud Commissioner would provide advice to the Government on how the levy would work in practice, taking learnings from similar levies elsewhere.

Based on interviews with over 31 experts from across the fraud policy and practice landscape, as well as 15 police officers across three force areas, the report gathers the views of those on the frontline of tackling online fraud and presents the barriers in the current system.

One expert described the most recent government action plans against online fraud laid out in the Fraud Strategy as “massively disappointing” and “doomed to fail”. In another interview, a police officer explained that fraud is frequently deprioritised because it doesn’t “bang, bleed, or shout”, leaving law enforcement without the incentives to investigate the crime.

The report follows previous Crest Insights research which found the emotional impact of online fraud for victims is worse than the financial hit.

According to the report authors, four goals need to be achieved to deliver a step-change in the UK’s response to fraud:

• The response to fraud is ambitious and strategic, on a par with the scale of the threat; 
• All actors are incentivised and able to dismantle silos and collaboratively achieve shared goals;
• Law enforcement has the resources, training, and technology to effectively pursue fraud, with a proactive approach at all levels;
• There is a hostile operating environment for fraudsters with enhanced preventative measures

Sophie Davis, report author, said: 

“Our research shows that the national response to fraud does not match the scale of the threat. Despite making up over 40% of all crime in the UK, fraud has been under-prioritised for over a decade, allowing the UK to become ‘a haven for fraudsters’.

Not only have current government measures created a responsibility vacuum, policing is under-resourced and lacking the skills required to deter and detect online fraudsters effectively.

Our previous research speaking to victims highlights the enormous toll of online fraud, with victims experiencing feelings of shame, self-blame, and isolation.

Despite a renewed government focus on fraud over the last two years — in particular, the publication of the first fraud strategy for a decade in 2023 — the approach to this crime still lacks the ambition needed to deal with what has been called ‘an epidemic’. 

The new Labour Government has pledged to introduce a new expanded fraud strategy to tackle the full range of threats. This should include ambitious, tangible and long-term targets, alongside adequate resources and structural reform. If the Government is serious about cutting crime, they cannot afford to ignore fraud.”