The UK government has announced the formation of a new Online Crime Centre – which will commence operations in April – to form a nexus in the fight against cyber fraud and disrupt the gangs behind the nation’s most pervasive crime.
The £30m project will comprise experts from the government, police forces, intelligence community, financial services industry, mobile networks, and large tech firms, coming together to work side-by-side, sharing crime data in real time, and building a unified picture of global fraud networks. Its inauguration comes amid a new, expanded strategy that will see Westminster plough £250m into anti-fraud activities between now and 2029.
Its core remit will be to identify accounts, websites and phone numbers being used by organised cyber crime gangs, and take them down at scale. The government said it means to block scam texts, freeze cyber criminal accounts, remove social media accounts dedicated to scams, and disrupt such operations at their source. Where possible it will also target the offenders who cause the most harm to the British public – one in every 14 adults in the UK, and a quarter of businesses, have fallen victim to fraud in the past year, with the cost to the economy set at about £14bn.
“Fraudsters are exploiting new technology, industrialising their operations and targeting the British public at scale,” said fraud minister Lord Hanson.
“That’s why we’re bringing together the key players in the system – police, intelligence agencies, banks, mobile networks, regulators and tech companies – to shut down the channels scammers rely on, wherever they operate from.
“Our new fraud strategy sets out how we will use every tool at our disposal to disrupt and dismantle criminal operations, bring fraudsters to justice and strengthen protection and support for victims,” said Hanson.
Fraud factories
The government’s new strategy comes in the wake of the highly-publicised exposure of overseas at-scale scam compounds that target tens of thousands of victims with scripted attack formulae. These fraud centres operate all over the world, although many are concentrated in the border region between Myanmar and Thailand.
The UK government believes that about two-third – possible more – of scams that target Brits originate from outside the country, and even though it is harder for the UK authorities to bring prosecute criminals working out of foreign jurisdictions, the government has in-place intelligence-sharing agreements with Nigeria and Vietnam to share intelligence that has already resulted in multiple arrests and takedowns.
The Online Crime Centre will help the government pursue further opportunities with other countries where cyber fraudsters have made their homes – and to this end home secretary Shabana Mahmood will be attending the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime’s (UNODC’s) Global Fraud Summit in Austria later in March.
Fighting fraud on many fronts
Beyond the Online Crime Centre’s activities, the government’s wider fraud strategy also establishes plans to help law enforcement better use artificial intelligence (AI) to spot fraud patterns, stop suspicious bank transfers quicker, and even trick scammers with scam-baiting chatbots, tying up their resources and distracting them from targeting real people.
The strategy also promises more support for those who fall victim to cyber fraud, with plans to set up a set of national standards – a victims’ charter, in essence – to guarantee police response times, minimum standards of care, and consistent advice on reimbursement no matter where in the UK they are located.
Supporting this, a cross-force network of police officers will be set up to help those found to be most vulnerable to fraud, targeting support to areas that emerge as hotspots, and relying on data from a new fraud reporting service to run campaigns of targeted prevention. At the individual level, this could see home visits to offer doorstep advice, or to help install call-blocking devices and services.
For fraudsters themselves, the government said the strategy will bring swifter justice and harsher financial penalties, with legal reforms under consideration to speed up court proceedings, and strengthen the use of civil enforcement powers.
National Crime Agency (NCA) director general for threats, James Babbage, said: “Over the last three years, the NCA has been building a stronger response to fraud. However, the threat will continue to grow globally, and the launch of the Fraud Strategy provides the basis for a further step change in our collective work to protect the UK public from these criminals.
“We have worked intensively with partners to pilot a range of new approaches to fraud and cyber crime: sharing data, stopping and blocking more online crime at source, and helping to design out vulnerabilities through more resilient industry processes,” said Babbage. “We are looking forward to working with partners across the public and private sectors as part of the new Online Crime Centre to continue this.”
Rachel Andrews, corporate security and fraud director at mobile network operator VodafoneThree, said: “It’s encouraging to see the government’s commitment to combatting fraud. Tech-enabled scams not only exploit connectivity and undermine trust in the UK’s digital network, they also cause significant amounts of financial and emotional distress for victims.
“VodafoneThree’s dedicated fraud team blocked over 139 million fraudulent SMS in 2025 and continues to block around 1.7 million fraudulent calls every day. As fraudsters’ tactics change, we’re investing in technology and teams to prevent fraud at each step of the customer journey. Continuing to protect consumers and businesses requires increasing amounts of collaboration with industry, government, partners and law enforcement. This strategy marks a major milestone in that journey and we look forward to collaborating more on it.”
Nathaniel Gleicher, Meta global head of counter fraud, added: “Fighting fraud and scams is a top priority for Meta – both on our platforms and across society. We welcome the UK government’s focus on tackling fraud and its recognition that addressing it requires an international focus given scams are often a transnational threat.
“With fraudsters operating in global, organised networks, the new Online Crime Centre will play a vital role in disrupting them. We’re committed to working with governments, law enforcement and industry partners worldwide to stop scammers. Our recent collaboration with the UK National Crime Agency and the Nigerian Police Force, which led to the disruption of an alleged scam centre targeting UK victims, shows the impact these partnerships can deliver. By sharing intelligence and strengthening partnerships, we can better protect people online.”
