The total cost of fraud to the UK economy is estimated to have been £137 billion in 2021. Digitalisation has accelerated it to such a point that 80% of fraud is now cyber-enabled and it has become the most commonly experienced crime in the UK.

Yet, according to a report by the House of Lords (HoL), successive UK governments have done little to tackle fraud and insufficient resources have been dedicated to combatting it. The HoL report singles out three sectors. The hosting community and the tech industry generally are challenged to do more, but particular criticism

is reserved for the telecoms sector, which it says simply hasn’t done enough to prevent fraud and needs to be held accountable.

In this report we look at one critical but antiquated telecoms process that is a facilitator of fraud – a gap that is easy for criminals to exploit but could just as easily be closed if the UK were to adopt international best practice. We also consider the consequences of the HoL report for the telecoms industry if nothing is done, as well as the impact on the digital economy.