Labour MP Emily Thornberry has admitted she fell for a telephone scam when someone contacted her saying she missed a parcel.
Speaking at the “How can government tackle fraud?” event at the Institute for Government on Tuesday night, the Shadow Attorney General said she gave her bank details to the fraudsters before realising it was a scam.
Fraud is one of the most common crimes in the UK with 3.3 million offences recorded in the year ending June 2023.
“I wonder how many people in this room have not had an attempt of fraud against them,” the Labour MP said: “How many people have not had a telephone call, an email or an attempt to try and bring them in and try defraud them.
“I suspect there will be hardly anyone in this room who hasn’t been. I particularly fell for one when I had a text pretending to be the post office saying ‘we’re going to deliver your parcel but we need £2.30 to redeliver it’,” Ms Thornberry continued.
“I gave them my bank details before I realised what I had just done. I posted the ordeal on Twitter and admitted that I’m an idiot.”
In February, the government launched a new anti-fraud campaign to help people protect themselves against crime has been launched, but critics said it is “too little, too late”.
The Government’s Stop! Think Fraud campaign includes a new website with fraud safety advice and adverts on billboards, broadcast and social media.
Fraud accounts for about 40% of all crime in England and Wales, costing society £6.8 billion, the Home Office said.
Labour said there has been an almost eightfold increase in the amount of fraud under Conservative rule, rising from about 440,000 offences in 2012.
At the time of the announcement, Ms Thornberry said: “Under this Tory Government there has been an almost eightfold increase in the amount of fraud, from around 400,000 offences per year to 3.2 million, and the losses to the UK as a whole have grown from £38.4 billion per year to £219 billion.
“After 14 years spent sleepwalking through the escalation of the crisis, launching an ad campaign in response is the definition of too little, too late.
“And most importantly, the Government’s response also remains far too narrow.
“This new campaign ignores the £158 billion lost to fraud each year by UK businesses, and does not even mention the two biggest components of those losses, procurement and payroll fraud.
“Only Labour will deliver the comprehensive new plan we need to protect everyone targeted by this parasitic crime, from small firms to pensioners.”
