§ Mr. BluntTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what his assessment is of whether advance fee fraud letters arriving from overseas(a) constitute a serious crime and (b) affect the economic well-being of the UK. [159693]
§ Mr. Charles Clarke[holding answer 30 April 2001]: Any form of organised fraud is a serious crime. The offences of conspiracy to defraud and of obtaining property by deception both carry a maximum penalty of 620W 10 years' imprisonment. We hope that most people in the United Kingdom will have the good sense not to pay advance fees in response to unsolicited correspondence and that therefore the overall economic threat will be limited. Anybody who receives such a letter should send it to their local police, for onward transmission to the National Criminal Intelligence Service, who are considering means of tackling the problem.