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The UK unveiled a national fraud strategy that shifts more responsibility for stopping scams onto telecom providers, technology platforms, and financial firms, backed by a new Online Crime Centre with more than £30 million to coordinate the National Crime Agency, GCHQ, police, and private-sector partners. The plan focuses on disrupting fraud infrastructure upstream by blocking scam texts, freezing accounts, and removing fraudulent online profiles, while replacing Action Fraud with a new Report Fraud system and pursuing a national capability to trace scam calls across networks. The broader UK push builds on earlier action to ban illegitimate SIM farms, a tool used to send mass scam texts and create large numbers of verified accounts, with operators already reporting more than 1 billion suspected scam messages blocked since 2023.
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South Korea's Cabinet approved a revision to the communications law raising penalties for illegal spam activity. The revision allows fines of up to 6 percent of relevant sales, confiscation of illicit proceeds, and penalties for mobile carriers that fail to prevent illegal spam.
The UK government unveiled a new national fraud strategy that places more responsibility for scam prevention on telecom companies, technology platforms, and financial firms. The strategy includes a new Online Crime Centre backed by more than £30 million and plans to replace Action Fraud with a City of London Police-run reporting system called Report Fraud.
The Trump administration issued an executive order directing a whole-of-government response to transnational criminal organizations running scam centers and conducting cyber-enabled fraud. The order requires a multi-agency action plan within 120 days, creates a Victim Restoration Program within 90 days, and establishes an operational unit within the National Coordination Center.
The Dutch National Police launched the “Game Over?!” campaign to combat scams involving fake police officers and fake bank employees. The initiative publicized blurred images of 100 suspects across billboards, television, and online ads to pressure them to surrender or be identified.
The UK government announced a ban on possessing or supplying SIM farms without a legitimate reason, to be introduced through the Crime and Policing Bill. The measure targets infrastructure used for mass scam texts and fraudulent account creation and will carry financial penalties after taking effect six months after Royal Assent.
The UK government published its response to a Home Office consultation and confirmed it would introduce legislation creating a new criminal offence for supplying or possessing SIM farms, with exemptions for legitimate use. The response also outlined a definition covering devices with five or more physical SIM cards and proposed powers to extend the ban to other telecoms devices used for fraud.
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Britain's largest mobile carriers, including BT EE, Virgin Media O2, Vodafone Three, Tesco Mobile, TalkTalk, and Sky, have agreed to upgrade their networks to block spoofed phone numbers as part of a new government-backed Telecoms Charter aimed at combating fraud. The initiative will require carriers to implement technology that identifies calls originating from abroad and prevents fraudsters from impersonating trusted organizations such as banks and government agencies. Advanced call tracing will be introduced to aid law enforcement in tracking down scammers, and carriers have also committed to improving support for scam victims and enhancing data sharing with police to better identify and stop fraudulent activity. This move comes amid growing concern over the widespread use of caller ID spoofing in Europe, which has enabled large-scale financial and social engineering crimes. Europol has highlighted that caller ID spoofing is a major enabler of cyber fraud, with global losses estimated at around EUR 850 million annually. Attackers exploit VoIP services and spoofing tools to impersonate trusted entities, making it difficult for law enforcement to trace perpetrators and increasing the urgency for robust anti-spoofing measures across national telecom networks.
Jul 12, 2026
UK fraud losses climbed sharply in the first half of 2026 as criminals increasingly used social media platforms rather than email to find and manipulate victims. Reporting cited a suspected **£153 million HMRC tax fraud** linked to TikTok, major fraud exposure on Meta platforms highlighted by Lloyds Bank, and record **£221.5 million** in UK investment scam losses reported by UK Finance, underscoring how platform-specific lures, impersonation, and AI-enabled scaling are reshaping online fraud. Authorities also linked the trend to cross-border criminal operations targeting UK victims through fake social media accounts. The UK National Crime Agency said fraud suspects were arrested in Nigeria after intelligence sharing tied to an investment scam operation, illustrating how overseas networks used fraudulent Facebook personas and other social channels to run scams against people in the UK while law enforcement pursued international disruption efforts.
Jul 29, 2026
UK authorities have charged five people following a National Crime Agency investigation into **Russian Coms**, a fraud-enablement platform accused of powering large-scale scam calling campaigns. Investigators said the service, launched in 2020, allowed criminals to spoof trusted caller IDs and impersonate banks, telecommunications providers, and law enforcement agencies to steal money and personal information. The defendants face allegations including conspiracy to supply articles for use in connection with fraud, along with multiple money-laundering-related offenses tied to proceeds allegedly generated by selling the platform’s devices and applications. The NCA said Russian Coms was linked to more than **1.8 million scam calls**, roughly **170,000 victims**, and **tens of millions** in losses. The platform was promoted through Telegram, Snapchat, and Instagram, accepted cryptocurrency payments, and offered handset and web-based tools with features including encrypted calls, no-logs functionality, voice changing, and instant handset wipes. Authorities previously disrupted the service in March 2024 as part of **Operation Henhouse**, a wider anti-fraud campaign that led to 290 arrests across the UK, and the five defendants are due to appear at Westminster Magistrates’ Court.
Jul 14, 2026