Huw has welcomed the Government’s new long-term ‘Stop! Think Fraud’ campaign, delivering tough new anti-fraud messaging, raising public awareness on fraud safety advice in partnership with law enforcement, tech, banking, telecoms and third sector organisations.

This new campaign builds on the Government’s long-term Fraud Strategy set out by the Home Office in May 2023, committing to 52 ambitious actions to cut fraud by ten per cent by the end of this Parliament. Thanks to this long-term plan, fraud and computer misuse has fallen by 13 per cent in the last year according to the latest data from the Crime Survey of England and Wales.

Official data shows that the number of fraud and computer misuse incidents in Sussex had fallen from 9,886 incidents to 8,809 incidents in the last year, a drop of 10.9%.

Since 2019, the Government has implemented a whole range of long-term reforms to tackle fraud by creating new national fraud squad with over 400 new investigators, banning SIM farms which are used by criminals to send thousands of scam texts and stopping cold calls for financial products so people cannot be duped by scammers.

The Government has also signed the world’s first Online Fraud Charter, delivering tough long-term action against fraud in partnership with 12 leading tech companies including Amazon, Facebook, Google and X (formerly Twitter).

Huw said:

“The Government’s new ‘Stop! Think Fraud’ campaign aims to raise awareness to spot the signs of fraud before it is too late.  Anyone can become a victim of fraud. Fraudsters can be so clever and manipulative in gaining trust through phone calls, texts and emails. Fraud can ruin lives and have a huge impact on individuals and families both emotionally and financially. 

I welcome the news that the Government’s crackdown on fraud has cut fraud referrals by 10.9% in Sussex. This campaign builds on the Government’s Long-Term Fraud strategy and the great work being done locally by Sussex Police to tackle fraud, raise awareness of scams and support victims.”