Does anything get you in the festive spirit more than seeing the sparkling Coca-Cola truck, or humming along to the wispy wails of the latest John Lewis cover song – or perhaps hearing the City regulator’s jolly jaunt about loan fee fraud?
Yes, there’s an unexpected new entry to this year’s Christmas advert line-up and it is none other than the Financial Conduct Authority.
While I can’t see it embedding itself in the national psyche like Coke’s tune, I’m impressed by anyone who can get the words “Financial Services Register” into a catchy jingle. (Although it was a missed opportunity, I feel, for the FCA not to borrow the tune of YMCA.)
The watchdog’s campaign – an effort to prevent people paying an upfront fee for a loan they never receive – is the latest example of a financial body attempting to protect consumers from fraud.
This week Lloyds Bank and the City of London Police launched a first-of-its-kind pilot scheme to take millions of pounds of frozen money out of scammers’ accounts and spend it on advice and aftercare for fraud victims and online safety classes for pensioners.
This follows the recent launch by a group of banks and telecoms companies of a “scam hotline” to make it easier for potential victims to report a fraud. The new 159 number is already fielding 500 calls a day.
But these are all just stocking fillers when what we need is a miracle. Britons lost £1bn to scams in the first half of this year alone – almost a third more than the same period last year. Almost half was stolen via “push payment” fraud, in which victims transfer money from their bank accounts. Cases have jumped by 71pc in the past year.
Last month the banking watchdog, the Payments Systems Regulator, threw up its hands and said it had reached the limits of its powers, urging lawmakers to make reimbursements for victims of push payment fraud mandatory.
Despite the introduction of a voluntary code of conduct in 2019, just £310m has been refunded to victims. Some banks reject 96pc of claims while others refuse to sign up at all.
The Government has not done nearly enough to clamp down on fraud, a festering plague that has ruinous, life-changing effects on its victims.
The Online Safety Bill includes protections against fraud but only in some cases, such as posts on social media. It does not cover scams via advertising, emails or cloned websites – which account for 85pc of all fraud.
The big technology firms also have a lot to answer for. Instead of using its cash and brainpower to prevent sham websites and fake ads, all we got from Google, which made $134bn in advertising profits in 2019, was a donation to the FCA of $1.5m in ad credits to warn consumers about rogue investment websites.
Fighting fraud has never been more urgent. The pandemic has brought countless chances for opportunistic scammers to exploit people’s fears and weaknesses – and with rising Covid cases, tighter restrictions and higher living costs will come millions more scams.
The FCA can jingle all the way, but this will not be nearly enough to stop the scourge.
lauren.davidson@telegraph.co.uk
