What is the government's new Fraud Strategy and how will it help fight fraud?

The Fraud Minister, Lord Hanson, has laid out the government's Fraud Strategy, which will invest £250m over the next three years to tackle fraud in the UK.

Which? has been campaigning for better scam protections since 2016 and welcomes the government’s new measures to tackle fraud, but the fight against fraud doesn't end here. 

Here are nine measures the government will be taking to protect you from scams.

1. Online Crime Centre

The government has announced a new online crime squad that will unite the police, intelligence agencies, banks, mobile networks and major tech firms. This will create a data-sharing collective in a bid to understand how and where global fraud networks are operating.

Backed by more than £30m in funding, the Online Crime Centre will discover and track down the accounts, websites and phone numbers used by these organised crime groups. It will then shut them down by blocking scam texts, freezing criminal accounts and removing scam social media accounts.

2. Global collaboration

The government is already working with Nigeria and Vietnam to disrupt cross-border scam networks and aims to pursue similar arrangements with other governments in high-priority countries.

It will also continue to use sanctions on countries found to be hot spots for fraudsters, including those involved in using forced labour to carry out scams. It will support Interpol, the international crime and policing organisation, in establishing a Global Fraud Task Force by 2029 to investigate international scam operations.

3. Victim support

The government will set up a new Fraud Victims Charter in 2027 to organise response times, minimum standards of care and consistent advice on reimbursement and recovery for scam victims.

A dedicated network of police ‘PROTECT’ officers will help those most vulnerable to fraud by implementing prevention measures like doorstep advice and installing call-blocking devices.

The City of London Police and the government will also work to establish identity repair services for victims of identity fraud.

4. Artificial Intelligence (AI)

The government will work with the City of London Police and National Crime Agency (NCA) this year to trial the development of an AI tool that supports the investigation and takedown of online scams. In particular, this will help discover whether a website is harmful.

Law enforcement will also use AI to spot emerging fraud patterns and suspicious bank transfers more quickly, and use scam-baiting chatbots to trick fraudsters and gather intelligence.

5. Telecoms

Working collaboratively with Ofcom, law enforcement, intelligence agencies and telecoms providers, a Call for Evidence will be launched this year to look at possible measures to strengthen accountability  within the telecoms sector and assess a range of solutions.

The government will also develop options to create a secure digital tool to manage UK telephone numbers this year. Its aim will be to create a central database that holds real-time information on the status and ownership of numbers. This will allow telecoms companies to trace the origin of suspicious calls and texts.

6. Online Advertising

Earlier this year, Which? warned about the dangers of scammers infiltrating the online advertising market to target you on trusted news websites, highlighting gaps in the Online Safety Act (OSA), which excludes news sites.

The government has announced a collaboration with the Internet Advertising Bureau UK (IAB UK) that will see internet companies, like the ones we highlighted in our investigation, to improve transparency and tackle malicious advertising.

If this fails, the government will legislate to tackle malicious online advertising.

7. Deepfakes

Deepfakes are getting dangerously convincing, and Which? has previously uncovered a global scam network that used AI-generated deepfake videos to dupe victims into investment scams, with victims losing their life savings to these scams.

The government will design and implement a system to detect deepfakes, including images, videos, fraudulent documents and faked audio.

8. APP reimbursement

In October 2024, mandatory reimbursements for victims of scams who were tricked into sending money via bank transfer (Authorised Push Payment) to criminals was introduced.

In its Fraud Strategy, the government expresses its contiued support for the reimbursement scheme.

9. Crypto scams

Which? has previously warned about scam videos of famous faces being used to lure social media users into bogus crypto schemes.

In December 2025, HM Treasury introduced legislation that made crypto firms regulated in the same way as traditional financial firms are under the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), which will come into force in October 2027.

What Which? has campaigned for

After years of Which? campaigning, the Online Safety Act (OSA), which makes big tech platforms responsible for stopping scams from getting onto their sites and apps, became law in October 2023. But the impact of this is still yet to be seen. 

Protections against fraudulent advertisements under the Act are not likely to come into effect until 2027, after repeated delays from the regulator Ofcom. Big tech must be held accountable for combating online fraud by ensuring the OSA’s codes for paid-for fraudulent advertising are introduced without further delay. Which? wants Ofcom, which regulates the OSA, to implement these duties as soon as possible.

In March 2025, we wrote to Chancellor Rt Hon Rachel Reeves, Technology Secretary Peter Kyle MP and Home Secretary Yvette Cooper, alongside UK Finance, urging the government to fast-track these protections.

In May 2025, we urged the government to include fake pop-up ads and bogus celebrity-backed investment schemes in the upcoming Fraud Strategy and were supported by 24,699 members of the public.

Then in November, 25,000 Which? campaign supporters supported our campaign to Stamp out Scams by emailing the Fraud Minister directly. The Minister responded the following day, acknowledging concerns over the government’s approach to tackling fraud and reiterated his commitment to reducing this crime.

Find out more: Which? campaign to Stamp out scams

What is Which?'s response to the Strategy?

Rocio Concha, Which? head of policy and advocacy, said:

'The most effective way to disrupt the fraudsters would be to make tech giants take responsibility and stop a flood of scams from appearing on their platforms in the first place - but this fraud strategy fails to do that.

'Greater intelligence sharing through an Online Crime Centre is an important step in the right direction, but if the approach is mainly reactive, authorities are likely to be fighting a losing battle as long as firms like Meta and X fail to prevent scams running rampant on their sites.

'The government has shown with the Grok deepfakes controversy that it is capable of moving fast and getting tough with big tech.

'Ministers must now apply the same urgency to tackling fraud. They should start by making Ofcom take action against tech firms that fail to block scams on their platforms, by urgently implementing the Online Safety Act’s measures on fraudulent advertising.'