Jamie Stone highlights 'climate of fear' over cyber crime – and reveals his late mother was targeted
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North MP Jamie Stone has claimed there is a "climate of fear" among his constituents over online fraud – and revealed how he discovered that his late mother had almost certainly been harassed by scammers.
He told the House of Commons that members of the public are becoming increasingly worried about being targeted and warned: "Fear is not healthy for society."
Mr Stone, the Liberal Democrat MP for Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross, is his party's spokesperson for digital, culture, media and sport. In a debate on Tuesday he urged the UK government to do more to protect victims of cyber fraud.
Describing it as a subject close to his heart, he told fellow MPs how he came to realise that his late mother, Susannah Stone, had in all likelihood received many scam calls before she passed away in 2015 at the age of 91.
"She had led a good life, and I loved her dearly and miss her today," Mr Stone said. "When she died, her telephone number was going to be taken back by BT but I thought, 'No, for sentimental reasons I will keep her number,' and that was all organised.
"What happened over the next few weeks and months was a revelation to me, and a nasty one at that. I was getting scam calls – fraudulent calls. Gradually it sank in that my mother must have been getting these calls in particularly high numbers, in a way that my old telephone number had not, and that she must have been on some database shared about among scammers as someone who was elderly and vulnerable.
"It seems to me that there must be evil databases out there that scammers use to email stuff to vulnerable people."
Mr Stone added: "I have had constituents who have lost large amounts of money. The trouble is, it was just in a moment of inadvertent not thinking that they released information they should not have done.
"It is a desperate business to talk to these people – it really is awful. However, right now in my constituency there is a climate of fear, with people getting really worried about perfectly innocuous emails coming in. I put it to colleagues that fear is not healthy for society.
"I often wonder, 'Did my mother fall for any of these scams?' I do not know – she is not here to tell me – but I worry that she might have done. God only knows."
According to the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau's Fraud and Cyber Crime Dashboard, 307,572 cases of cyber crime and fraud were reported in 2020 in the UK. This amounted to a financial loss of £1.7bn. Figures from Police Scotland confirm that over the same year 7279 reports relating to cyber crime and fraud were logged, representing a £26.3m loss.
Several bills going through the UK parliament relate to cyber fraud.
Mr Stone said: "Scammers prey on our vulnerabilities and they make a lot of money doing it. The cyber crime dashboard shows that millions of pounds are being lost to fraud and cyber crime – and that’s only based on what has been reported.
“The UK government is bringing forward several pieces of legislation to tackle cyber crime and fraud, but they’re all disjointed and do not properly resource regulators like Ofcom to seek resolution for scam victims.
"Nor has the Scottish Government properly resourced Police Scotland so it can do more to help people identify and report cyber crime."
“I will continue to work hard over the next few months to make sure the UK’s various pieces of legislation that relate to cyber crime are watertight and will do all they can to properly protect and support scam victims.”
A Scottish Government spokesperson said: “Despite constraints on Scotland’s public services through a decade of UK austerity, our investment in policing this year increased by £60.5 million to more than £1.3 billion. We have also provided an additional £15 million specifically to mitigate the impact of Covid-19 on the policing budget.
“Police Scotland and the Scottish Police Authority work together to ensure the necessary resources and expertise are in place to tackle emerging areas of threat, such as cyber crime and fraud.
“The Scottish Government works closely with the National Cyber Security Centre [NCSC] and Police Scotland to ensure Scotland is prepared for cyber threats and would urge all organisations to follow NCSC’s advice and guidance.”
