The 2024 Global Fraud Summit In The UK
Addressing Global Fraud & Cybercrimes
Authors:
• SCARS Editorial Team – Society of Citizens Against Relationship Scams Inc.
• UK Home Office
About This Article
The historic Global Fraud Summit, held in the UK on March 10-11, 2024, brought together world leaders, industry experts, and representatives from multiple continents to tackle the growing threat of global fraud.
The summit aimed to foster international collaboration, raise public awareness, and develop strategies to disrupt criminal operations and prevent future scams.
A key outcome was the establishment of a joint communique outlining areas of focus, including information sharing, law enforcement cooperation, public education campaigns, and technological solutions.
This summit signifies a major step towards a more unified global front against fraud.
The Global Fraud Summit Delivers A Worldwide Commitment to Fight Cybercrime
The Global Fraud Summit, held in the UK on March 10 and 11, 2024, was the first-ever international gathering focused on tackling fraud as a global threat.
Here’s a summary of the key points:
Participants:
The Global Fraud Summit was hosted by the UK, with representation from Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, New Zealand, South Korea, Singapore, and the US, alongside INTERPOL, the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), and the EU.
- World leaders from G7 and Five Eyes nations (US, UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand)
- Senior ministers
- Representatives from Singapore and South Korea
- Industry leaders from banks, tech companies, and other sectors
Goals:
- International Collaboration: Building partnerships and information sharing to combat cross-border fraud schemes.
- Public awareness: Educating citizens on how to recognize and avoid fraud, especially vulnerable populations.
- Targeting Organized Crime: Disrupting the operations of transnational criminal groups involved in large-scale fraud.
- Preventing Fraud: Exploring ways to make it more difficult for fraudsters to operate, such as through technological solutions and industry regulations.
Outcomes:
- A joint communique outlining the importance of international cooperation and specific areas of focus for tackling fraud (https://homeofficemedia.blog.gov.uk/2024/02/12/fraud-factsheet/).
- Increased awareness of the global scale and impact of fraud.
- Commitment from participating governments and industries to work together on solutions.
Based on the information from the Home Office blog post you linked about the summit (https://homeofficemedia.blog.gov.uk/2024/02/12/fraud-factsheet/), we can expect the communique to highlight the following key areas of focus for international cooperation against fraud:
- Information Sharing: Establishing secure channels for sharing intelligence on cross-border fraud schemes, including sharing data on modus operandi, emerging trends, and identified fraudsters.
- Law Enforcement Cooperation: Enhancing collaboration between law enforcement agencies from different countries to track down perpetrators, dismantle criminal networks, and recover stolen funds. This might involve joint investigations, extradition treaties, and capacity building for law enforcement in countries more vulnerable to fraud.
- Regulatory Harmonization: Exploring ways to standardize regulations across different countries regarding areas like financial services, data protection, and online commerce. This would make it harder for fraudsters to exploit loopholes in different jurisdictions.
- Public Awareness Campaigns: Developing and implementing coordinated public awareness campaigns to educate citizens on how to identify and avoid fraud. This might involve targeting specific demographics like the elderly or those new to online banking.
- Technological Solutions: Encouraging collaboration between governments, tech companies, and financial institutions to develop and implement technological solutions that make it more difficult for fraudsters to operate. This could involve advancements in identity verification, fraud detection algorithms, and secure payment systems.
- Public-Private Partnerships: Highlighting the importance of partnerships between governments, law enforcement agencies, financial institutions, and technology companies to share information, resources, and expertise in tackling fraud.
These are some of the potential areas outlined in the communique. As more information becomes publicly available, we may learn about more specific commitments and action plans made by the participating nations and industries.
Global Fraud Summit Communiqué: 11 March 2024 – Policy paper
Opening
1. We, ministers and representatives of Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, New Zealand, the Republic of Korea, Singapore, the United Kingdom, and the United States convened in person in Lancaster House, London, for the inaugural Global Fraud Summit. We discussed the increasing threat of fraud against individuals and business and the challenges it poses. We stand firm in our commitment to tackle fraud and crack down on the criminal networks responsible. In this we were supported by INTERPOL, the Financial Action Task Force and the UN Office on Drugs and Crime. The European Union was also represented at the meeting.
2. Fraud against individuals and businesses, has grown rapidly to become one of the most prevalent crimes globally and is an organised transnational threat. In some countries, it is the most common crime type that citizens experience. Fraudsters operate at scale, exploiting telecommunications networks, cyberspace and a population that spends an increasing amount of time online.
3. Fraud types can vary across jurisdictions, but the devastating impact of fraud is universal. Fraud causes significant financial losses for individuals and institutions. It damages trust between consumers and legitimate businesses. It also causes deep distress for victims. Finally, failure to tackle fraud risks undermining public trust in law enforcement and government institutions.
4. With fraudsters adopting ever more sophisticated methods, it is the shared responsibility of governments, law enforcement, industry, regulators, and individuals to combat this rising threat.
5. We therefore endorse the following four-part framework for tackling fraud. We also commit to co-ordinating and leading the international response to ensure that the criminals responsible have nowhere to hide.
01: Build international understanding, partnerships and capabilities
6. We recognise that fraud is a truly transnational issue and that more must be done in each country, and across the world, to mitigate the significant harm to victims. In this regard, we commit to building on the G7 Interior Ministers’ Declaration on Enhancing Cooperation in the Fight against Transnational Organized Fraud issued on 10 December 2023 in Mito, Japan.
01.A: Develop our understanding of the fraud threat
7. Developing and maintaining a detailed knowledge of the constantly changing threat is key to effectively tackling fraud. We will strengthen our individual understanding of the types, volumes and origins of fraud taking place in our jurisdictions.
8. As fraudsters evolve their tactics, we must continue to strengthen our collective understanding of the threat to allow us to focus our efforts where they will have the greatest impact. We recognise Europol’s ongoing monitoring and reporting and will engage with UK funded INTERPOL global fraud threat assessments.
01.B: Strengthen multilateral partnerships and grow capabilities
9. Beyond this Global Fraud Summit, we recognise that a range of multilateral bodies including the G7, G20, Five Country Ministerial (FCM), European Union, Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN), United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), Financial Action Task Force (FATF), INTERPOL and others, will play a key role in driving forward global action to combat fraud. These diverse organisations reflect the range of initiatives required to deliver a global response to fraud, spanning political action, law enforcement, capacity building, industry activity, and regulation.
10. We commit to using our membership of these bodies and other opportunities for global leadership to ensure recognition of fraud as an international priority both within and beyond the jurisdictions represented at this Summit. We will continue to discuss fraud at all appropriate forums including the FCM and G7 to drive a truly global response to the fraud threat.
11. We will maintain momentum on this important matter and support the next Global Fraud Summit.
02: Better empowering the public
12. Victims of fraud often feel significant shame and stigma. We must ensure that protecting the public is a central component of any response. We will improve public awareness of the threat and equip all citizens, especially the most vulnerable, with the relevant tools to recognise, reject and report fraudsters’ tactics.
02.A: Strengthen victim support
13. We commit to raising public awareness of fraud to prevent victimisation and encourage greater reporting. In particular, we must reduce the repeat victimisation of those who are the most vulnerable. To support this, we will share best practice on victim support practices and will align public messaging through existing multilateral bodies and bilateral engagement.
14. It is vital that consumers can trust the origin of the communications, such as calls and texts, that they receive. We commit to share best practice and align, where appropriate, measures designed to prevent criminals impersonating individuals and legitimate businesses through telecommunications networks and through the internet.
15. We recognise the psychological and emotional harms of fraud and will work with civil society organisations and the non-governmental sector both domestically and internationally to provide vital support to victims.
02.B: Support victims to reclaim their money
16. Given the speed with which proceeds of crime are often transferred and laundered across jurisdictions, timely international cooperation is critical. We must retrieve the proceeds of fraud from criminals and wherever possible return them to victims.
17. We welcome the recent significant enhancement of the FATF standards on asset recovery and support the global implementation of the conclusions of the FATF, INTERPOL, and Egmont group report ‘Illicit Financial Flows from Cyber-Enabled Fraud’. We will seek to strengthen and improve awareness of broader existing mechanisms for international asset recovery.
18. We recognise that we must go further to support victims. We will continue to work through existing international fora to explore ways to improve the repatriation of fraudulently acquired funds from bank accounts across jurisdictions.
03: Pursue organised fraudsters acting transnationally
19. Law enforcement agencies across the globe undertake significant work to identify and tackle fraud. Fraudsters operate globally and international collaboration is critical to dismantle these organised networks. We will seek to build on existing initiatives and collaboration to improve the global law enforcement response.
03.A: Increase data and intelligence sharing
20. Governments and law enforcement must keep pace with the rapidly changing threat picture. To this end, we commit to the appropriate sharing of data and intelligence with INTERPOL, Europol and amongst all attendees to ensure timely intelligence sharing which will support further operational action. We will work together to support INTERPOL intelligence sharing. We will also support the increased use of core INTERPOL capabilities including, but not limited to, INTERPOL notices, services such as I-GRIP, and their ability to facilitate data and information sharing.
03.B: Strengthen enforcement activity in mutual threat areas
21. We recognise that we are collectively being targeted by criminal networks operating from specific jurisdictions. We support stronger coordination of law enforcement operations in these jurisdictions and will continue to explore further avenues to bolster collaboration, including via sanctions or other mechanisms, as may be appropriate.
03.C: Increase capability and capacity building initiatives
22. We recognise that the global impact of fraud will be disproportionate, and that fraud will hinder economic development for many. We must ensure there is sufficient support for all countries to put in place measures to combat fraud. To this end, we commit to working together to explore opportunities to share international best practice and to deliver a wide range of capability and capacity building initiatives.
04: Preventing the reach and means of fraudsters
23. Strong industry engagement is key to preventing fraud. As our societies become more digitally centred, new technologies both improve the lives of the public and expand the modus operandi of fraudsters.
24. Technology companies (including social media, e-commerce and online messaging platforms and online advertising services), telecommunications providers and financial institutions (including traditional banks and digital financial institutions) all form part of the ecosystem that fraudsters exploit to send credible messages impersonating legitimate individuals and institutions and defraud victims.
25. We recognise that the scale and nature of the fraud threat on these platforms are vast. Industry play a critical role in the response required and we expect them to take further action to strengthen their counter-fraud efforts. There must be greater collaboration both within and across sectors.
04.A: Strengthen government and industry engagement
26. We commit to building cooperation with industry domestically and international. We will share learning, information, and resource across government, law enforcement, industry and regulators to prevent criminals exploiting these services and platforms for their own gain.
27. We expect industry to maintain a strong evidence base on the scale of fraud and the methodologies used by criminals, in order to better prevent fraud.
28. We encourage industry to increase efforts to identify and remove fraudulent materials on their public platforms.
04.B: Global consideration of industry agreements
29. Fraud is an increasingly digital crime with the threat continually evolving, including with the use of artificial intelligence. Countries may take account of best practice in their approach to working with industry to combat fraud.
Looking Ahead:
The summit is a significant step towards a more coordinated global response to fraud. The specific actions and initiatives implemented by participating nations and industries will determine the long-term success of this effort.
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More Government Policy Related Information:
- UK hosts world leaders for first Global Fraud Summit – GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
- Global Fraud Summit Communiqué: 11 March 2024 – GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
- UK Money Mules New Plan Of Action To Disrupt Organized Crime – 2024 (scamsnow.com)
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