The United Kingdom will soon launch an emergency hotline number ‘555’ for victims to complain about bank fraud. The idea is to make the new hotline number a central repository to alert banks of illegal money transfers which can help crack down scams.
As the idea is being backed by Ministers, Financial Chiefs, and police officers, it can turn into a reality within no time.
Currently, 999 is an emergency hotline number for those residing in the UK and in the European Union. But cyber attack victims cannot dial this number. Instead, they are asked to contact Action Fraud number 0300 123 2040 which is mostly non-responsive.
So, Britain’s financial body is planning to come up with 555 hotline number by Feb. next year which will help its populace report cyber scams at an early stage. This will help the law enforcement to act swiftly on time and nullify the impact of the fraud to a large extent.
Till 2Q of 2017, UK Finance, an industry body, recorded more than 937,518 cases of fraud. This works out to more than 5,000 cases a day where customers are estimated to have lost over 366 million pounds between them.
In most of the cases, criminals masqueraded as police officers, government officials, and bank staff to trick customers into handing over their account details. Other gangs use scam text messages or emails to obtain personal information.
Due to the lack of an emergency response team, fraud victims often fail to report that they have been duped and have lost money from their bank accounts.
Now, UK wants to strengthen the law enforcement in this segment and is planning to offer an emergency hotline 555 for those who fear that they have been scammed.
As the proposal is in early stages, precise details on how the hotline would work are still unclear.
Thus, more details are awaited!
Note- The idea to offer 555 hotline numbers for cyber frauds was mooted at the meeting last month by Joint Fraud Taskforce, which was set up by Theresa May to combat cybercrime and report cyber attacks on the country’s financial systems.
