The United Kingdom government issued a consultation paper offering a blanket ban on finance-related cold calling and also requiring evidence to ascertain the full impact on businesses as well as the costs associated with enforcing the ban.
The economic secretary to the Treasury, Andrew Griffith, criticized, “The government will not tolerate this behavior. This is why we announced in the Fraud Strategy that government will ban cold calling for all consumer financial services and products. ”
In May, the government of the U.K. also announced an effective fraud strategy that would require 400 new investigators. According to the report, the National Crime Agency estimates that 7 billion pounds are lost to fraud each year across the nation.
The HM Treasury cited multiple examples of how investors lost money as a result of cold calls; one of them is cryptocurrencies. The UK government has previously put in place a number of laws banning and restricting cold calling, but scammers frequently exploit gaps in the system to bypass the law.
For this ban, the Treasury mentions the 19 questions to stakeholders, which will ensure that it will have less effect on businesses and more impact on scammers for those who depend on cold calling prospects. On September 27, 2023, this consultation will close.
Also Read: UK Government to Establish a New Multi-Agency Crypto Cell
