The UK government has announced a new multi-agency disruption unit aimed at tackling fraud at scale, bringing together public and private sector intelligence to target organised scam networks.
The Online Crime Centre, due to launch in April, will unite specialists from government, policing, intelligence agencies, banks, mobile networks and major technology firms to coordinate action against fraud.
Backed by more than £30 million in funding, the centre will focus on identifying and shutting down the digital infrastructure used by organised crime groups – including fraudulent bank accounts, scam websites and phone numbers – in an effort to disrupt operations at source.
The unit forms part of a broader expanded UK fraud strategy, with the government committing £250 million over the next three years to strengthen the national response to what ministers describe as the country’s most pervasive crime.
Data sharing
A central goal of the new unit is to enable faster and more coordinated intelligence sharing between organisations that hold key information about scams.
Reports submitted by victims through Action Fraud, the UK’s national fraud and cybercrime reporting service, feed into policing databases and help build the intelligence picture used by investigators and partners across government and industry.
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Data gathered through the reporting service is analysed by the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau (NFIB), which sits within City of London Police. Insights from these reports are then shared with policing teams, financial institutions, telecoms providers and technology platforms to identify patterns, map criminal networks and enable faster disruption of scams.
Under the new model, this intelligence flow is expected to strengthen coordination between reporting systems, law enforcement and the new disruption unit, enabling authorities to act more quickly against the digital infrastructure used by fraudsters.
Addressing the UK’s most common crime
The new strategy comes amid growing concern about the scale of fraud in the UK. Government figures show one in 14 adults and one in four businesses have been victims of fraud, with the crime costing the economy more than £14 billion annually.
Fraud Minister Lord Hanson said criminals are increasingly exploiting new technology to industrialise scams and target victims at scale.
By bringing together law enforcement, regulators, financial institutions and tech platforms, the government aims to “shut down the channels scammers rely on” and dismantle criminal networks operating both in the UK and overseas.
