Mobile phone firms should face criminal prosecution if they do not stamp out the scourge of scam text messages, it has been warned.
Peers have demanded the introduction of a new corporate criminal offence of “failure to prevent fraud”.
In a damning report, the House of Lords digital fraud committee said the telecoms sector must do more to stop messages before they reach victims and combat spoof calls.
The tech industry must slam the brakes on fraudsters using online advertising and social media platforms to reel in consumers, it said.
"Until all fraud-enabling industries fear significant financial, legal and reputational risk for their failure to prevent fraud, they will not act," the peers said.
Fraud is the most commonly experienced crime in England and Wales, accounting for approximately 41% of all crime against individuals, the report said.
"If citizens were being routinely mugged and having millions of pounds stolen from their wallets in broad daylight, every organisation involved in allowing this to happen would have no choice but to deal with it swiftly, and the perpetrators would be brought to justice in court," it said.
"Because most fraud is now happening online and often involves social engineering of the victim, the exponential growth in fraud and scams has been invisible and fraudsters face little risk of being caught. This has to stop."
Rocio Concha, Which? director of policy and advocacy, said: "The lack of a joined-up approach between different business sectors is holding back the fight against fraud and leaving consumers exposed to unscrupulous scammers."
A Government spokesman said: "We remain absolutely committed to preventing callous predators from stealing cash from hard-working families.
"We will shortly publish our Fraud Strategy which details how we will stop fraud attempts at source, empower potential victims to recognise and avoid fraud and prosecute more perpetrators."
Alex Davies-Jones, Labour 's shadow minister for digital and tech, said: "Labour has been pushing Government for years to strengthen protections against fraud and scams."
