Exclusive:SIM farms: Fraud minister Lord Hanson outlines plans to ban devices used by scammers to con the public

It only takes one text. One moment’s distraction. One slip of attention. One convincing message which catches us off-guard. And, in an instant, everything can be gone.

Savings drained. Identities stolen. Personal details lost to callous criminals determined to defraud us of everything we work so hard for.

And whilst the financial impacts of a scam text can be enormous – the emotional tolls often last a lifetime.

The shame. The disbelief. The isolation. The questions that haunt so many victims: ‘How could this happen to me?’

And, make no mistake about it, anyone can be a victim.

These fraudsters are getting smarter, faster, and more efficient – they are utilising the most up-to-date technologies to gain our trust, catch us off-guard, and trick us into acting before we’ve had a moment to think.

These criminals are not just sending one text to one person. But thousands of texts to thousands of people, every single day.

This is the reality we face with SIM farms – technical devices capable of holding multiple SIM cards that allow criminals to send scam texts to thousands of people at once. This is fraud on an industrial scale.

SIM farms allow criminals to weaponise our mobile networks, flooding the public with texts that appear legitimate but are designed to deceive, defraud, and destroy our trust.

As the Minister responsible for combating fraud, I’m proud to announce that this government is banning SIM farms and ending this shameful practice through our new Crime and Policing Bill.

In a landmark step, the UK will become the first country in Europe to do so and once again shows us to be a global leader in the prevention of fraud.

We’ve all been bombarded with these scam texts for far too long – the figures are simply staggering. Recent data suggests that 64% of adults in the UK have received a suspicious message – this is roughly equivalent to 35 million people.

And that’s why this ban matters - because it strikes at the heart of an issue that we've all experienced.

Beyond cutting off criminals’ ability to target the public, I’m pleased that these measures will also boost law enforcement ability to act swiftly to both protect the public from fraud and bring these offenders to justice - delivering UK resilience and security as a foundation of our Plan for Change.

This means raids, it means seizures, and it means fines. Because we are closing the net on criminal gangs.

It also means working ever closely with industry. As part of our new, expanded Fraud Strategy, we are supporting where we can and challenging where we must – and I continue to urge all partners, including tech and telecoms companies, to go further and faster to tackle fraud.

I will keep beating the drum for public awareness. Because the more we can equip the public with the knowledge and skills to starve the oxygen from these criminal networks – the more we can prevent these frauds from happening.

So, if anything doesn’t feel right, my message is simple: Stop. Think. Fraud. This really could make all the difference. Because it only takes one text.

But by approaching this from every angle – we can all stay protected from scams.

NationalWorld ran the Silent Crime campaign last year that highlighted how so-called low-level crimes were not victimless but had a great impact on both individuals and businesses across the company. Since then the government has announced plans for thousands more police officers, as well as a counter-fraud strategy that has demanded that tech firms do more to clamp down on criminals.