Diplomats ‘need to get their hands dirty and deal with foreign fraudsters’

Helena Wood, from the Royal United Services Institute, said the recognition of the dangers caused by fraud was a “step change” in the official response, but warned that it would need action from diplomats if concrete results were to be achieved. “We have to get diplomats pulling their weight because a lot of the threat is coming from overseas,” she said. “We have to set out where the international threat is because they really don’t know where that’s coming from, so you scope that out and get GCHQ involved. Then I’d like to see some diplomats getting their hands a bit dirty and doing some work because they don’t like to get involved in the nasty business of organised crime. “With many fraud perpetrators targeting the UK from outside it is important that the Government looks to a response which goes beyond the criminal justice system. We need diplomats to raise the pressure on nations hosting fraud factories and call centres.”