New laws must be used to ensure that online platforms protect their users from scams, the government has warned.
Seventeen consumer and business groups and authorities have said the scams should be included in the online safety bill, which could be announced in the Queen’s Speech next week.
Inclusion would protect consumers from an “avalanche” of scams that cause “devastating financial and emotional harm,” they said.
The coalition includes Which ?, City of London Police, Association of British Insurers (ABI), UK Finance and MoneySavingExpert.
Martin Lewis, founder of the Money and Mental Health Policy Institute and MoneySavingExpert.com, said: “This is not to say that the government’s online security bill could ignore the epidemic of scams the Kingdom is facing. -Uni is facing – but that’s the plan.
“The scam police are severely underfunded, letting criminals get away with these scams.
“The government has a chance to at least deny them ‘the oxygen of advertising’ by making big tech responsible for the fraudulent ads they are paid to run.
“I call on the government on my knees to seize this opportunity, inserting scams into the online security bill. Failure to do so will betray its promise to create top-notch online protection and leave vulnerable people without. defense against online crime in the midst of a global pandemic. “
In an open letter to Home Secretary Priti Patel and Digital Secretary Oliver Dowden, the coalition wrote: “Online platforms play a central role in enabling criminals to reach and defraud internet users by hosting, by promoting and targeting bogus and fraudulent content on their sites. , including the advertisements from which they make significant profits.
“Yet the platforms have very little legal responsibility to protect their …
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Source: news.sky.com
This notice was published: 2021-05-06 20:22:00
