Amazon, Google and other tech giants pledge action on fraud

Fake adverts and romance scams were targeted as technology giants backed an online-fraud charter at a meeting with Home Secretary James Cleverly.

Pledges include measures designed to protect users of online dating services from flirting with fakes.

Amazon, eBay, Facebook, Google, Instagram, LinkedIn, Match Group, Microsoft, Snapchat, TikTok and YouTube backed the charter.

Fraud accounts for about two-fifths of all crime in England and Wales.

The charter’s commitments are “voluntary” and not all will apply to every company. They include:

And the companies pledged to implement these changes within six months.

The joint fraud taskforce, chaired by Security Minister Tom Tugendhat, would hold the companies to account for delivering the actions, the government said.

The new Online Safety Act, which applies to search engines and user-to-user services such as social-media platforms, also requires companies to mitigate the risks of fraud and, for some, prevent fraudulent advertising.

But the charter, the government says, is designed to drive more targeted action among a focused group of businesses.

“I have every confidence this charter will be an important step forward in our collective efforts to protect the protect the public from fraud,” Mr Tugendhat wrote.

MoneySavingExpert.com founder Martin Lewis welcomed the agreement, saying: “We are in the midst of an epidemic of scams.

“We will be watching closely to check these companies work hard and work together to make good on their promises.”

Mark Jones, of law firm Payne Hicks Beach, said it was “a great initiative – but given that the criminal justice system is already at breaking point, coupled with a lack of resources to investigate and prosecute, there’s a question mark over whether this will actually result in more prosecutions and convictions.”