Anti-scam campaign groups urge UK police forces to get tougher on fraudsters
The pleas are being made just days after the UK government announced it is working on an 'expanded' fraud strategy as part of a 'robust response' to surging reported fraud rates, which rose by 19% last year according to the Office for National Statistics.
The new initiative follows a huge data leak exposing a $35m (£27m) scam call centre operation earlier this month, when the Swedish public broadcaster SVT shared files including more than 1m scam telephone calls with the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP), the Guardian and other international reporting partners.
Jorij Abraham, the managing director of the Global Anti-Scam Alliance (GASA), said: 'You can scam and go free. There is hardly any risk. It is easy, low cost and quite rewarding. We are calling on politicians around the globe to give law enforcement more charter – more resources.'
He had earlier told GASA's London conference on Wednesday that scams are a 'penalty-free crime'.
Rocio Concha, director of policy and advocacy at the consumer protection campaigner Which?, added: 'Law enforcement has a crucial role to play in stopping the UK's fraud epidemic and deterring scammers. Police, the government and businesses – such as telecoms firms, banks and online platforms – need to work together to share information about criminals and stop scams appearing in the first place.
'However, we also need to be realistic about what UK law enforcement agencies can do to tackle organised criminal gangs who are often operating complex online scam operations outside the UK. An effective enforcement action by regulators is also needed to hit businesses with financial penalties when they fail to put the right systems in place to prevent scams.'
Launching the government's new initiative last week, UK fraud minister Lord Hanson told the GASA conference: 'We need to hold criminals to account for actions, pursue them relentlessly and make sure we get outcomes … for victims.'
He added that money lost to fraud is 'going into other crime enterprises'.
The $35m Georgian scam operation targeted people living in the UK more than any other country, with British residents accounting for a third – about £9m – of the money taken. Of about 2,000 victims globally who were persuaded to part with the largest sums, 652 were based in the UK – with the worst hit victims losing more than £100,000 each.
While the Georgian prosecutors have launched a criminal investigation into a Tbilisi-based operation, it is not clear if they are receiving any support from international colleagues.
When asked by the Guardian last week, the UK's National Crime Agency did not say if it was collaborating with international agencies to investigate the call centre. The City of London police, which is the UK's lead police force for fraud, declined to answer when asked if it had offered Georgian authorities assistance.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Guardian
44 minutes ago
- The Guardian
‘We're anti-federal chaos': Democratic cities prepare for worst after Trump's tirades against DC and LA
As sand-colored Humvees rolled down Washington DC streets against the wishes of local leaders, mayors around the country planned for what they would do if the Trump administration comes for them next. Donald Trump's disdain for Democratic-run cities featured heavily in his 2024 campaign. The president vowed to take over DC – a promise he attempted to fulfill this week. Earlier this year, he sent national guard troops to Los Angeles amid protests despite California opposing the move, which led to a lawsuit from the state. City leaders say there are appropriate ways for the federal government to partner with them to address issues such as crime, but that Trump is using the pretext of crime and unrest to override their local authority, create chaos and distract from a bruising news cycle about his ties to Jeffrey Epstein. Many cities have worked to bring down violent crime rates – they are on the decline in most large cities, though mayors acknowledge they still have work to do to improve the lives of their residents. 'President Trump constantly creates a narrative that cities like Seattle are liberal hellholes and we are lawless, and that is just not the fact,' said Bruce Harrell, the mayor of Seattle. 'We are the home of great communities and great businesses. So his view of our city is not aligned with reality. It's to distract the American people from his failures as a president.' By sending in the military, some noted, Trump was probably escalating crime, contributing to distrust in the government and creating unsafe situations both for residents and service members. Even Republican mayors or mayors in red states have said they don't agree with Trump usurping local control for tenuous reasons. The US Conference of Mayors, currently led by the Republican mayor of Oklahoma City, David Holt, pushed back against Trump's takeover of DC, saying 'local control is always best'. 'These mayors around the country, by the way, from multiple ideological backgrounds, they love their city more than they love their ideology,' said Jacob Frey, the mayor of Minneapolis. Mayors told the Guardian they are ready to stand up for their cities, legally and otherwise, should Trump come knocking. They are working with their chiefs of police to ensure they agree on the chain of command and coordinating with governors in the event the national guard is deployed. Because Trump has so frequently brought up plans to crack down on cities, large Democratic cities have been strategizing with emergency planning departments and city attorneys. But Trump has shown he's willing to bend and break the law in his pursuits against cities. The Pentagon is reportedly planning to potentially put national guard troops at the ready, stationed in Alabama and Arizona, to deploy to cities experiencing unrest. He has indicated this is just the beginning of an assault on cities. His attorney general sent letters to a host of Democratic cities this week, threatening to arrest local leaders if they don't cooperate with federal authorities on immigration enforcement. The idea that troops could be on the ground for any number of reasons in cities around the US should alarm people, said Brett Smiley, the Democratic mayor of Providence, Rhode Island. 'This is not something that we should be used to, and we shouldn't let this administration break yet another norm or standard in our society, such that a couple years from now, we don't think twice about when we see troops in our cities,' Smiley said. The roots of Trump's battle with cities stretch back to his first administration, and they align with common narratives on the right about how cities today have fallen off because of liberal policies. Project 2025, the conservative blueprint, called for crackdowns on cities, including withholding federal funds to force compliance with deportation plans. His campaign promises included a commitment to 'deploying federal assets, including the National Guard, to restore law and order when local law enforcement refuses to act'. In a video from 2023, he explained: 'In cities where there has been a complete breakdown of law and order, where the fundamental rights of our citizens are being intolerably violated, I will not hesitate to send in federal assets including the national guard until safety is restored.' In 2020, he reportedly wished he cracked down much harder and faster on protesters and rioters during the demonstrations after George Floyd's murder. Now, he's using smaller problems – anti-immigration protests and crime against a government employee – to declare emergencies. Minneapolis, where the protests began after a police officer killed Floyd, has at times made Trump's list of rundown cities. Frey, a Democrat, said he didn't know whether 2020 protests played a role in Trump's current actions. 'I don't think anybody can pretend to know what's in Donald Trump's head,' Frey told the Guardian. 'It's an utter mess of idiocy. I don't know what he's thinking. I don't know what he's thinking or what the rhyme or reason is. I mean, clearly there's a focus on Democratically run cities.' When Trump called out other cities on his radar, he named blue cities run by Black mayors – Baltimore, Oakland, Los Angeles, Chicago. 'The fact that my city and all the others called out by the president on Sunday, led by Black mayors, are all making historic progress on crime, but they're the ones getting called up – it tells you everything that you need to know,' Baltimore's mayor, Brandon Scott, said in a press call this week. The federal government can often partner with cities to address crime – several Democratic mayors noted that they worked with the Biden administration on this front successfully. But those partnerships are mutually agreed upon collaborations, not overrides of local policing. 'We're not anti-federal help. We're anti-federal chaos,' Frey said. Detroit's mayor, Mike Duggan, said in a statement that his city is seeing its lowest homicides, shootings and carjackings in more than 50 years, crediting a partnership with federal agencies and the US attorney as a major part of that success. 'This partnership is simple and effective: DPD does the policing and the feds have strongly increased support for federal prosecution,' Duggan said. 'We appreciate the partnership we have today and are aware of no reason either side would want to change it.' Mayors are not saying they have solved the issue of violent crime, Scott said, though they are acknowledging they have reduced it and will continue to work toward further reductions. 'We need folks that want to actually help us do that, versus try to take and show force and make us into something other than a representative democracy that we all are proud to call home,' he said. Mayors throughout the US made a clear distinction between Trump's authority in Washington DC compared to other cities. Washington has a legal provision in the Home Rule Act of 1973 that allows for a president to take over its police department during an emergency on a temporary basis, though Trump is the first to use this power. Other cities have no similar concept in law. Even with the Home Rule Act, Washington officials sued Trump after his attempt to replace the city's police chief, saying the president was mounting a 'hostile takeover' of DC police. Trump and the city agreed to scale back the federal takeover on Friday, keeping DC's police chief in place. 'We know when people want to say they're going to be a dictator on day one, they never voluntarily give up that aspiration on day two,' Norm Eisen, an attorney who frequently sues the Trump administration, said in a press call this week. 'That is what you are seeing in the streets of the District of Columbia.' In Minneapolis, Frey said the city has prepared operational plans with police, fire and emergency management and readied itself legally. 'Our chief of police and I are lockstep, and he reports up to the commissioner of safety, who reports up to me,' Frey said. 'There's no lack of clarity as to how this reporting structure works, and it certainly does not go to Donald Trump. Doing something like that in Minneapolis, it would be just a blatantly illegal usurpation of local control were this to happen here. Of course, we would take immediate action to get injunctive relief.' Trump's decision to send in national guard troops to Los Angeles is also legally questionable. Governors typically direct guard troops. The California governor, Gavin Newsom, sued Trump for using the military for domestic law enforcement in defiance of the Posse Comitatus Act. The case was heard by a judge this week. Harrell, of Seattle, said he is confident he will be able to protect his police department and the city's residents if Trump sends troops. 'What I have to do is make sure that the people under my jurisdiction as mayor feel confident in an ability to fight his overreach, and that our law department is well geared to advance our legal arguments,' he said. Scott, of Baltimore, said he was prepared to take every action 'legally and otherwise'. Still, there is some uncertaintyand unsteadiness about how cities can respond if Trump calls up the national guard. 'It's very difficult to know what our options are, because we're in unchartered territory here,' Smiley, of Providence, said. 'It's unprecedented and I don't know what my options are with respect to preventing troops from coming in, which is one of the reasons that I'm trying to be so proactive about making it clear that it's not necessary, it's not wanted.' This article was amended on 17 August 2025. An earlier version stated that tanks were present in Washington DC, when they were actually Humvees.
Sky News
an hour ago
- Sky News
Jimmy Lai's son says his father will 'most likely die in jail' unless UK govt intervenes
The bustle still exists in Hong Kong, but its tone is not the same. A city once famous for its protest, now simply doesn't dare. Just a few years ago it would have been hard to imagine a court case as high-profile as that of Jimmy Lai without at least a handful of supporters and placards. But as closing arguments began in the trial of one of the city's most well-known pro-democracy figures, there was not a hint of dissent in sight. Now Lai's son, Sebastian, who advocates on his behalf, has said that the treatment of his father will have dire implications for Hong Kong"as a a financial centre", and has warned the British government (of which Lai is a citizen), that if it fails to act "my father is most likely going to die in jail". Jimmy Lai has been described as the most famous prisoner of conscience anywhere in the world. He is an iconic figure within Hong Kong's pro-democracy movement and is one of the most high-profile people to be charged under Hong Kong's controversial national security law. The self-made millionaire, lifelong critic of Beijing, and the owner of pro-democracy newspaper Apple Daily is accused of colluding with foreign forces and publishing seditious material. After a five-month adjournment, closing arguments in his trial will get under way in earnest this week. There is a sense here that authorities have found this trial a little tricky to resolve. How to handle an elderly man who some believe has become emblematic of a cause? How to balance significant international criticism with the city's desire to assure the world it is just, fair and back open for business? His family and lawyers believe this partly explains the multiple, lengthy adjournments. Lai's son, Sebastian, has spent years advocating for his father from London. He has not seen him in nearly five years. "The worst-case scenario is that he dies in prison," he says. It is a legitimate concern. Lai has spent over 1,600 days in solitary confinement. He is 77 years old and diabetic. Indeed, on Friday, the first day of the resumed court activity was taken up by discussions about his health and the court was then adjourned so he could be fitted with a heart rate monitor. "In Hong Kong, it's a concrete cell which gets up to 30, 40C and he bakes in there essentially," says Sebastian. "So we're incredibly worried about him, and all of this in the last four years was aimed to break him, to break his spirit." 'If he dies, that's a comma on Hong Kong' Sebastian insists his father's death would not just be a personal tragedy, but a huge problem for both the Hong Kong authorities and Beijing's government. "You can't tell the world you have the rule of law, the free press and all these values that are instrumental to a financial centre and still have my father in jail," he says. "And if he dies, that's it, that's a comma on Hong Kong as a financial centre." It's criticism that the authorities in Hong Kong are acutely aware of. Indeed, the government there has insisted in a statement that the city's "correctional facilities are humane and safe" and said that claims to the contrary are merely "external forces and anti-China media" working to "glorify criminal behaviour and exert pressure on the courts". But Lai is also a British citizen and there is a sense his family believes successive UK governments have failed in their duty to support him. Petitioning is a journey Sebastain describes as "heartbreaking". "It's time to put actions behind words," he says. "Without that, my father is most likely going to die in jail." It's criticism that the authorities in Hong Kong are acutely aware of, the regional government claimed in a statement that "external forces and anti-China media" are actively working to "distort the truth, blatantly discredit the judicial system, in an attempt to glorify criminal behaviour". Some believe the Lai trial is one of the final outstanding affairs in the wake of the crackdown on Hong Kong's huge 2019 pro-democracy protests, actions the Beijing-backed authorities say were necessary to restore order and stability. When you spend time in this city, it's hard not to conclude those efforts have been remarkably successful. Any signs of dissent are now extremely hard to track down. Tiny slogans graffitied in hidden places, a few independent bookstores still stocking political titles or young people choosing to not spend money in Hong Kong where possible is about as much as exists. Meanwhile, the mainland Mandarin language is more commonly heard in the streets and slogans and banners extolling causes favoured by Beijing are not hard to find. In today's Hong Kong, stances are staked in quiet acts of compassion, such as committed visits to friends behind bars. 'Don't ever second-guess Beijing' It's on one of these trips we accompany Emily Lau, a former Hong Kong lawmaker and pro-democracy supporter. "It's very important to show the people inside that they have not been forgotten," she explains, as she climbs into one of Hong Kong's iconic red taxis. "It's my way of showing my support." She is visiting Dr Helena Wong, a fellow member of the Democratic Party, and one of the so-called '47' - 47 activists tried together for conspiracy to commit subversion. Her key offence was standing in an unofficial primary election. Lau is upbeat as we chat, but also frank about the state of democracy in her city. "It's very difficult. Now it seems you cannot demonstrate, you cannot march, you cannot petition," she says. "And if you do post something online or some posts, you have to be very careful about what you say. "I will never say we are finished, no, but right now, of course, it's very difficult." We wait outside for her as she visits Dr Wong. She reports back that she's in good spirits and was happy to see her friend. Their political party is in the process of disbanding, like every other pro-democracy group. The pressure has simply become too much, and she fears this isn't the end. "Don't ever second-guess Beijing," she says. "Don't try." Indeed, the only political groups able to continue are those who at least tacitly support Beijing and its laws. 'Not as bad as people think' Ronnie Tong runs a think tank called Path of Democracy, which also sponsors people to run for office. He bills it as a moderate force, but in reality, it has supported the National Security Law and all measures used to crack down on protesters. "I don't think it is as bad as people think," he says. "The only thing they cannot say is to advocate succession or separatism." I ask if using the word 'democracy' in the group's title feels a little ironic, given his voice is likely only permitted insofar as it does not criticise Beijing. "No, I don't think so," he replies. "People have to understand that politics is also about personal relationships." That will likely not wash with many people here, but right now most feel they have no choice but to keep a low profile or move on. The Lai trial is only one small part of Hong Kong's story, but it's a reflection of the rapid change here and a snapshot of a city adjusting.
Reuters
3 hours ago
- Reuters
Australia's Ampol profit slumps but resilient despite weather hits
Aug 18 (Reuters) - Australia's top fuel retailer Ampol ( opens new tab reported a 23% drop in its first-half profit on Monday, hurt by weak refinery margins and operational and weather-related disruptions, though the result was better than what the market had feared. Shares of the fuel retailer drifted within tight ranges in early trade, and were down 0.2% at A$29.08 as of 0115 GMT, after rising 0.7% earlier in the session. That compared with a largely flat broader ASX 200 benchmark index (.AXJO), opens new tab. The company said Lytton's refinery margins started the second half strongly, with July being $9.95 per barrel, up from $7.44 per barrel in the first half. Planned maintenance shutdowns and production losses from a cyclone disrupted operations, while weak Singapore refining margins pressured profitability at its Queensland refinery. The refinery's underlying operating earnings shrank substantially to A$1.1 million ($716,650.00), from A$89.5 million a year ago, while earnings from its fuel and infrastructure division also nearly halved to A$118.3 million. As a result, the company's net profit after tax from continuing operations for the six months ended June 30 fell to A$180.2 million on a replacement-cost basis, 23% lower than A$233.7 million a year ago, but beating the Visible Alpha consensus estimate of A$165.6 million. Ampol declared an interim dividend of 40 Australian cents per share, lower than 60 Australian cents per share paid out a year ago. The fuel retailer flagged that trends for its fuel and infrastructure division, excluding Lytton, convenience retail and New Zealand segments are expected to largely continue from the first half. "We don't expect material consensus estimate changes, which will allow the market to focus on upside from the impending EG Group acquisition," Jefferies analysts wrote. The company announced last week it would buy British fuel station operator EG Group's local unit, EG Australia, for a total of A$1.1 billion. ($1 = 1.5349 Australian dollars)
