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Dept of Trade and Industry

Answer

Helen Southworth: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what assessment she has made of the effectiveness of current consumer protection measures in dealing with e-mail promotion and transaction of frauds; and what steps she will take to ensure that perpetrators of such e-mails receive appropriate penalties. [179496] Mr. Timms: E-mail is an extremely powerful vehicle for targeting vast numbers of consumers at very low cost. The types of scams that they carry are also becoming more sophisticated and the nature of the medium also means perpetrators can easily hide their real identities. This particular kind of fraud is therefore challenging, but we believe we are helping to put in place an effective framework of activities to meet it. First, through law and enforcement co-operation. Email fraud is dealt with under the same laws as other fraud and consumer protection laws such as misleading advertising and distance selling. Therefore they incur the same penalties for infringements of these laws. Our focus then is on ensuring that they can be effectively enforced. To help this process, we are building partnerships between Government, regulators and industry to develop ways--including technological solutions--to find the perpetrators and stop this kind of activity. As many of these types of e-mail come from abroad, a major part of this is building effective co-operation agreements with other countries. In the past two years the UK has built up a network of consumer protection co-operation agreements with other countries including the United States and our European Union partners, and we are at the forefront of driving international co-operation to tackle unsolicited emails (SPAM). Second, through information. Advice and guidance to help consumers is key. The Department of Trade and Industry, Home Office and Office of Fair Trading all provide a wide range of information on email fraud for consumers. See www.dti.gov.uk/ccp www.homeoffice. gov.uk and www.oft.gov.uk Consumers should also take note of the help and guidance given by the Internet Service Provider (ISP). We believe that this approach--encompassing co- operation, enforcement, information provision and technological solutions--is the right one, and we will continue to improve and build on these elements.

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

179496; 423 c193-4W

Session

2003-04

Subjects

Fraud Law and order International cooperation Email Unsolicited goods and services

Link

View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk