Fraud is the most common crime in the UK. In just one year, one in seventeen adults in England and Wales were the victims of fraud. People who have been targeted in this way can feel alone, embarrassed and afraid.
That’s why we’re proud to support the Government’s new campaign: Stop! Think Fraud, and we’re urging people to report online scam ads to us.
The evidence led campaign draws on the expertise of leading counter-fraud experts, including the Home Office, the National Crime Agency and National Cyber Security Centre. It includes an online fraud hub which will provide concise, simple to follow advice. It will also signpost victims to relevant organisations for further advice and support.
To announce the campaign, the Government has created new ads that will tell consumers where to find information, how to report scams and what to do if you’re a victim.
People who want to know more can head to www.gov.uk/stopthinkfraud to see how they can avoid fraud and report crimes.
What about the ASA? We don’t regulate ads for scams – we only regulate legitimate advertising. But that doesn’t mean we’re not playing our part.
In 2020, we launched our Scam Ad Alert System. When somebody flags a scam online ad to us, we promptly send an alert to all participating platforms, including Google, Amazon and Meta, with key details of the scam ad, as well as to publishers when the ad appeared on a publisher owned site. If they locate them, partners will remove the offending ad and suspend the advertiser's account. In some instances they may also add them to blocklists, even when the ads weren’t appearing on their platform, stopping them from appearing in future.
We encourage anyone who spots a paid-for online scam ad to report it to us so that we can take action to have it removed. You can report scam ads appearing in paid-for spaces online to us via our online form. We assess reports within 24 hours, enabling us to quickly and effectively alert platforms to scam ads so that they can promptly remove them, suspend the advertisers’ accounts and stop similar ads appearing in future.
Tackling online scam ads is a global problem, requiring a joined-up response involving law-enforcement bodies and statutory regulators, platforms and all involved in the online ad industry, as well as national advertising regulatory bodies such as the ASA. We’re excited to support the Stop! Think Fraud campaign, and we’ll continue to play our role in fighting fraud.
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