New laws for computer fraud

THE Government has signalled a major crackdown on fraud, including a new offence to tackle the growing problem of internet crime.

'Phishing', or the theft of personal details and identity online is the fastest growing area of credit card fraud according to figures from thebanking industry earlier this year. Now the Government is to replace eight existing fraud offences with one general offence of fraud under plans revealed by ministers yesterday.

The Government hopes the sweeping moves will make it easier to convict fraudsters - particularly offences carried out on the internet such as 'phishing'. The Fraud Bill will also create a new offence of possessing articles for use in frauds, designed to cover items such as computer software and credit card readers.

Another new offence of obtaining services dishonestly will attempt to deal with those who use stolen credit card details to make internetpurchases. Criminals who carry out 'phishing' scams on the Web - for example, by sending out e-mails pretending to be legitimate financialinstitutions to con people out of their personal identification numbers (PINs) - will be committing an offence of fraud by false representation under the proposals.

The Bill will also extend the offence of fraudulent trading to 'non-corporate traders' such as sole traders and even door-to-doorsalesmen. Many of the offences can currently be prosecuted under other deception or theft charges but the Bill is designed to streamline the process. Under current law most theft offences require prosecutors to prove deception.

This has led to a loophole in the law because most internet transactions are entirely automated and it is impossible to 'deceive' anything but ahuman mind. The proposals will cover England, Wales and Northern Ireland.

The Home Office minister Fiona Mactaggart said the introduction of a general fraud offence would improve the criminal law in a number of respects.

She added: 'It will simplify the law, making it clearer to juries and the general publicas well as making the prosecution process more effective by providing a clear definition of fraud. Our aim is to encompass all forms of fraudulent conduct, with a law that is flexible enough to deal with developing technology, allowing us to bring more offenders to justice.'

The Attorney General, Lord Goldsmith, said: 'This reform is needed to enableprosecutors to get to grips with the increasing abuse of technology, particularly in relation to fake credit cards scams and personal identitytheft, which cost millions of pounds every year.'

Reform of fraud laws has been on the cards since 1998 when the then Home Secretary asked the independent Law Commission to investigate the idea of a general fraud offence. A consultation paper was published last year.