They now amount to almost half of all crime – and is my job to co-ordinate the battle against the fraudsters across the range of Government departments and regulators.
Access to justice should mean that consumers receive the bulk of any settlement or damages, but that is not what is happening in practice.
Here are my suggestions to ministers of five things they must focus on to truly bear down on the challenge that the volume of crime in our times presents.
Our goals: better protection for individuals and businesses from scammers, an end to our inadvertent role in helping drug traffickers and people smugglers launder the proceeds of their crimes, and leadership in the fight against Putin’s barbaric regime.
Fraud Awareness Week is a chance to reflect on the huge costs such crimes impose on British business.
It costs our economy some £137 billion a year. Just a small amount of that could more than cover the costs of a new force and save banks and insurers billions.
The new Economic Crime Manifesto, launched today, details how this country can once again lead the global response to this challenge.
Demanding the right to profit from promoting it while refusing to pay the costs is clearly indefensible.
The Government has already done the hard yards by committing to giving options. I am now imploring Ministers not to let the legislation fall short at this final hurdle.