Fraud Committee inquiry: who are the perpetrators of cyber frauds and where are they located?
Wednesday 23 March 2022
On Thursday 24 March 2022, the Lords Committee on the Fraud Act 2006 and Digital Fraud will take evidence from the financial services sector.
These evidence sessions will be held remotely and streamed on Parliament TV.
At 9.30am the committee will hear evidence from:
- Kathryn Westmore, Senior Research Fellow, RUSI
- Dr Alice Hutchings, Director of the Cambridge Cybercrime Centre, University of Cambridge
- Dr Konstantinos Mersinas, Senior Lecturer, Royal Holloway.
At 10.45am the committee will hear evidence from:
- Ghela Boskovich, Regional Director, Financial Data and Technology Association
- David Pitt, CEO, Pay.UK
- Kate Martin, Markets Editor, Financial Times.
Questions the committee is likely to cover in these sessions include:
- How has the cyber-fraud landscape evolved over time and what threats do we face from emerging technologies such as the dark web, malware, ransomware and crypto-fraud?
- Are the perpetrators of cyber frauds individuals or organised crime groups?
- How effective are efforts by online platform providers to protect consumers against cyber-fraud?
- Are the Fraud Act 2006 and Computer Misuse Act 1990 still relevant to the prosecution of contemporary cyber-fraud cases?
- Why do some companies see their losses through fraud as an acceptable cost of doing business?
- Is the payments sector, including financial services, payment systems providers and regulators, aligned in its ambitions and actions to tackle fraud?
- How does cryptoasset fraud occur and how do fraudsters ‘cash out’ using cryptoassets?
Fraud is the most commonly experienced crime in England and Wales, causing losses of billions per year. The committee will consider what measures should be taken to tackle the increase in cases of fraud. It will consider how the provisions laid out in the Fraud Act 2006 are used in practice for the detection, prevention and prosecution of fraud, and explore whether the Act is in need of reform. The committee will pay particular attention to how the Act is being applied to tackle fraud committed online or through digital means.
Read the transcript of the committee’s previous oral evidence session on 17 March 2022.
Read the committee’s call for evidence which was published a fortnight ago.
The committee’s work can be followed on its website and via Twitter.
