(Via Instagram) Why are there so many scams and not enough being done about them?

MSE_Laura_F

We've received a few questions via MSE's Instagram account. Here's one of them:

"Why are there just SO many (scams) and nothing seems to be being done about them?!"

MorningcoffeeIV

The answer is that there aren't that many.

What's happened is that people now use scam to mean 'something I don't understand or agree with', rather than actual scams.

MSE_Katie

Transcript of video above:

Scams are a national epidemic in the UK. Actually, it's got so bad that fraud is the crime that you're most likely to fall victim to now. That is shocking and something needs to be done about it. And that's why people like us at MSE - and our peers at Which? and Citizens Advice and others - have been campaigning to try and make things better for consumers.

Now, you're quite right: incidents of scams are so high at the moment, and there are several reasons for that. I'll name just a few.

First of all, industries aren't sharing enough information about the frauds that they come across. So your bank's not telling your telecoms company, is not telling your social media firm so that they can prevent it happening across the spectrum.

Secondly, online firms like social media companies and online advertising firms operate on a 'Tell us it's a fraud' basis. So they'll allow these apps that lead you to scammers to go live and they'll only take them down once they're aware or they've been reported. Now, that's not right. And we have campaigned very hard, along with many of our friends and peers looking after consumers, to get scams included in the upcoming Online Safety Bill. And what that will do, hopefully, is put a duty on social media and online advertising firms to make sure that they try and prevent scams from appearing on their platforms altogether.

Now, there are other issues as well. The Government has an economic crime plan which it's going through, and some of these scams are run from abroad affecting UK consumers, and that involves working with law enforcement across borders. There's lots of difficulties and there's lots being done as well to try and stop scams from happening. 

But scammers are so sophisticated. Every time a new rule is invented, or a new tactic to catch them comes up, they work around it. So I would ask that right now everyone remains as vigilant as possible to the idea that they might be being scammed. Take a minute before purchasing anything. Challenge it if you're not sure and make sure that if a scam has happened to you that you contact your bank right away.