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Coalition urges UK government to add scams to Online Safety Bill

Coalition urges UK government to add scams to Online Safety Bill

UK Finance, Which?, and City of London Police are among a host of organisations to sign on to a letter calling for the government to include online scams in its new 'Online Safety' bill.

The bill aims to force firms - through the threat of massive fines - to improve internet safety in areas such as terrorist content, child sex abuse, hate crimes, cyber-bullying and the dissemination of fake news.

However, financial fraud has not been included in the bill - which could be announced in next week’s Queen’s Speech - prompting 17 organisations representing civil society and business to write to Home Secretary Priti Patel and Digital Secretary Oliver Dowden.

According to the letter: "Online platforms play a pivotal role in enabling criminals to reach and defraud internet users through the hosting, promotion and targeting of fake and fraudulent content on their sites, including adverts that they make significant profits from.

"Yet platforms have very little legal responsibility for protecting their users, despite often being the best placed to tackle harmful content."

The letter - signed by the Money and Mental Health Policy Institute, Carnegie UK Trust, PIMFA, MoneySavingExpert and Age UK, among others - continues: "We believe that fake and fraudulent content that leads to scams must be included in scope of the proposed Online Safety Bill.

"This would require online platforms to identify, remove and prevent fake and fraudulent content from being hosted on their sites, putting in place incentives for platforms to work together with the telecoms, banking and finance sectors to tackle economic crime."

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