THERE is a “permissive culture” existing around fraud and more co-ordinated action is needed to prevent scams from happening, a House of Lords committee has said. 

The Fraud Act 2006 and digital fraud committee said “failure to prevent fraud” should be introduced as a new corporate criminal offence to further incentivise all industries to contribute to stopping scams. 

The telecoms sector needs to do more to stop scam messages before they reach their victims and combat spoof calls, the committee said, while the tech sector must tackle fraudsters who are using online advertising and social media platforms to lure people.

Plans to hold platforms to account for fraudulent advertising used on their services through the Online Safety Bill must be strengthened, the committee said.

It said that the financial services sector has been “bounced into action” by the costs of reimbursing customers who have lost out to fraud. 

“Until all fraud-enabling industries fear significant financial, legal and reputational risk for their failure to prevent fraud, they will not act,” the report said.

It added: “The private sector must be encouraged to combat fraud not only through facing the threat of corporate criminal liability or regulatory action, but also through the creation of a safe harbour for the sharing of data for the purposes of preventing fraud.”

Civil liberties groups including Big Brother Watch and Liberty have previously voiced concerns the Online Safety Bill is damaging to free speech on the internet. 

The two organisations among others wrote a letter to Culture Secretary Michelle Donelan in September urging an overhaul of the Bill.