To ask the Minister of Justice (i) for her assessment of cyber and telephone scams; and (ii) to detail the steps she has taken to counteract this threat.

Advances in technology over the past few years have resulted in scams happening more online and by telephone, although postal scams and doorstep scams still occur. Prevention by raising public awareness, through a multi partner approach, is crucial.

My Department is a member of the Scamwise NI Partnership which is chaired by the PSNI and has over 45 partners who work collaboratively to raise awareness of scams. Other key partners include the NI Policing Board, Trading Standards NI, the Consumer Council, the Commissioner for Older People, representatives from the retail and banking sector including Royal Mail and the Post Office and a number of faith and youth groups.

The Communications Regulator joined the Partnership at the start of this year and will assist the Partnership in working more closely with mobile phone network operators and internet providers to prevent scams. I understand that Ofcom, supported by the telecommunications industry, is currently leading on work to transition the UK telephone network to Voice Over Internet Protocol technology (VOIP) by 2025. This will enable a technical solution to prevent number ‘spoofing’ where a caller impersonates another number. This method of ‘spoofing’ caller numbers is frequently seen in Northern Ireland and used to impersonate banks and utilities to obtain personal financial details or other sensitive information.

As part of its awareness raising activities, the Scamwise NI Partnership has developed a series of books aimed at raising awareness of scams. These are: The Little Book of Big Scams; The Little Book of Cyber Scams and the Little Booklet of Phone Scams. These books provide a comprehensive guide to how scams operate, how people can fall victim to fraudsters and most importantly, how people can protect themselves and spot scams. The Little Book of Cyber Scams was developed jointly by the Scamwise NI Partnership and The PSNI Cyber Security Centre.

More recently, with a funding contribution from my Department, the Partnership developed a new series of video clips to ensure that the Scamwise message reaches a wide audience through social media. The short video clips, which include information on scams such as Covid purchase of non-existing goods, mandate fraud and email hijacking, have been rolled out across PSNI, Scamwise and NI direct social media platforms as well as shared with the scamwise partners.

My Department uses its own social media channels including Twitter & Instagram to highlight current scams and inform the public about what they should be wary of. These channels also signpost the public to the NI Direct Scamwise NI page for up to date information and support as well as highlighting who to contact if some-one fears they have been targeted by a scam, including contact details for the PSNI and Action Fraud.