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Cybersecurity
Preventing online and ICT-enabled fraud globally
Online and ICT-enabled fraud is one of the fastest-growing forms of transnational crime, harming consumers, businesses and trust in digital markets. This policy paper sets out cross-industry perspectives and good practices, as well as concrete recommendations for governments and industry to strengthen prevention, enforcement and public-private co-operation.
Online and ICT-enabled fraud has evolved from isolated scams into industrial-scale operations run by organised criminal networks. Exploiting digital technologies such as generative AI, global connectivity and regulatory fragmentation, these groups operate across borders at growing speed and scale, undermining trust in digital services, imposing significant economic and social harm and undermining confidence in innovation and cross-border commerce.
Legitimate businesses across financial services, telecommunications, digital platforms, cybersecurity and other sectors are investing heavily in measures to prevent, detect and disrupt fraud. Yet no single company, sector or government can counter transnational fraud networks alone. A co-ordinated internationally aligned response is urgently needed. This policy paper analyses the challenges to effective action, highlights good practices and successful initiatives from across sectors, and outlines key recommendations for governments and industry to strengthen the global response to online and ICT-enabled fraud.
What is limiting effective action?
Structural and systemic gaps undermine collective effectiveness. Several interrelated constraints stand out:
- Fragmented regulatory environments: Divergent legal and compliance frameworks across jurisdictions create complexity that can delay coordinated action and inhibit timely information exchange across borders.
- Operational barriers to cross-border enforcement: Criminal networks operate globally and move quickly. Investigative and judicial processes, however, remain largely national, which can slow disruption efforts and allow malicious actors to exploit jurisdictional seams.
- Misaligned accountability structures: When liability frameworks are not harmonised or clearly defined, they can unintentionally create uncertainty around collaboration, risk allocation and preventive measures.
- Technological acceleration: The rapid evolution of digital tools, such as AI-enabled fraud, automated phishing, and synthetic identity techniques, is outpacing static regulatory and policy approaches.
The policy paper also puts forward several successful collaborative initiatives. These include global intelligence-sharing networks, cross-sector anti-scam taskforces and technical solutions that enable companies to share threat indicators such as malicious domains, phone numbers or digital identities used in fraud campaigns.
However, online and ICT-enabled fraud is a shared, transnational threat that cannot be solved in isolation. Governments, industry, law enforcement and civil society must work together to strengthen cross-border enforcement, align regulatory approaches, and expand meaningful public-private partnerships.
Recommendations for governments and industry to strengthen the global response to online and ICT-enabled fraud
- Go cross-border by default: Strengthen international legal cooperation, streamline cross-border data access mechanisms, and support joint investigations targeting organised criminal networks and their infrastructure.
- Invest in prevention, not just response: Elevate scam prevention as a national priority with dedicated funding, modernise data and analytical capabilities, build specialised law enforcement expertise, and enhance fraud intelligence capacity.
- Fix legal and regulatory fragmentation: Clarify legal definitions and obligations; enable lawful fraud reporting and intelligence sharing; and promote globally interoperable frameworks across consumer protection, cybersecurity, privacy, and data governance.
- Operationalise public–private cooperation: Move beyond dialogue toward real-time operational collaboration, including joint operations cells, trusted intelligence-sharing platforms, standardised reporting mechanisms and coordinated public education campaigns.
