Virgin Media O2 Says UK Gov Must Get Serious with Tackling Fraud

Broadband ISP and mobile giant Virgin Media and O2, which invests millions in counter fraud measures each year and blocked more than £250m worth of fraud in 2023, has called on the UK Government to take “urgent action” to address the “epidemic” levels of fraud. The ISP is seeking stronger police powers and the appointment of a dedicated minister.

The telecoms operator highlights the example of how its own investigation team spent more than two years building a compelling case against a large-scale organised crime gang targeting UK consumers over a multi-year period. The operator uncovered evidence which linked around £250,000 worth of fraudulent activity and hundreds of stolen devices to two individuals in the UK.

However, despite the operator’s best efforts, the case is said to have “stalled“, and no charges have been brought. Meanwhile, the suspects who have defrauded many hundreds of victims continue to walk free, with VMO2’s intelligence team indicating this fraud ring continues to operate and target the public.

The operator has presented detailed evidence of systematic fraud by organised criminals to police forces on more than thirty occasions over the past two years, all of which it believes offers a realistic prospect of prosecution. But only two of them are understood to have led to a criminal prosecution. Meanwhile, the Fraud Strategy launched a year ago under the previous government has not done enough to empower police forces to prevent or prosecute fraudsters, with VMO2 saying that “consumers and businesses [have been] left to fend for themselves“.

The telecoms giant is thus calling on the government to appoint a dedicated minister for fraud and overhaul how the police tackle it by creating a single centralised, specialised national body that handles all instances of fraud – backed with the necessary resources and focus to drastically cut this pernicious cross-border crime.

Rob Orr, COO at VMO2, said:

“Fraud is at epidemic levels, with organised gangs of fraudsters operating professional call centres which relentlessly target Brits every second of every day.

We’re constantly building our defences higher and sharing compelling evidence of what these gangs are up to but with no real deterrent in place, these criminals can repeatedly steal free from the threat of prosecution.

Despite their best efforts, dedicated police officers are handcuffed to working through a patchwork of local forces, many of which lack the specialist skills and teams needed. Too often, this leaves them unable to act – even on slam-dunk cases.

To help turn the tide, we urgently need Government to appoint a minister responsible for fraud and address the structural problems by creating a centralised, specialised and properly resourced national body to handle all instances of fraud to tackle this complex, cross-border crime.”

The operator also highlights a new Freedom of Information Request, which reveals that, on average, there were only 84 fraud convictions originating from each police force last year and one police force serving a population of more than half a million people was responsible for just 23 convictions. Three forces have no officers dedicated to investigating fraud.

Similarly, just 6% of cases reported to Action Fraud ever reached police forces for investigation in the 2023/2024 financial year and for those that did, few resulted in charges, with the latest Home Office data revealing a 10% deduction year-on-year. This is despite nearly 69% of Brits reporting that they’ve been targeted.

VMO2 Calls on the Government to:

• Equip the new body with sufficient new officers to better match the number of fraud cases – at least doubling the existing commitment in the Fraud Strategy (i.e. from 400 to 800);
• Invest more to tackle persistent, criminal gangs that are committed to defrauding UK consumers;
• Appoint teams to work closely with businesses, with officers assigned to specific sectors like telecoms, to reduce consumer and business fraud; and
• Appoint a dedicated fraud minister with oversight of this organisation. Ensure they develop more ambitious targets to tackle fraud and are held to account through annual progress reports.