UK Authorities to Ban Cold Calls for Financial Products Including Crypto

The U.K. government is set to ban cold calls to sell financial products, including crypto, in order to tackle fraud and scams. The reported value of U.K. cryptocurrency fraud has risen 32% and the government is introducing a National Fraud Squad with 400 new posts to help investigate crypto-related crime.

As part of the new fraud strategy, the UK government announced the creation of 400 new jobs to bolster intelligence-led policing efforts. This new strategy comes as there is an annual loss of about £7 billion to fraud, according to an estimate by the National Crime Agency.

The authorities will collaborate with the Office of Communications towards using new technology to deal with phone number “spoofing.” This will not allow fraudsters to impersonate legitimate U.K. phone numbers.

Wire fraud is so rampant in the country such that one in fifteen people fall victim, says Bloombergs report. Hence, the authorities plan to come up with laws requiring financial institutions to reimburse victims of authorized fraud.

There have been remarkable efforts aimed at clamping down on crypto firms in the UK. Among the measures is the mandatory registration of firms engaging in crypto activities with the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) based on Financial Services and Markets Act rules for the digital assets market.