15th UN Crime Congress: HLS thematic meeting 6 – 27 September 2026

of Saint Kitts and Nevis. Thank you.

Excellencies, distinguished colleagues, ladies and gentlemen, it is a pleasure to take part in this discussion on an issue that is central to both the fairness and effectiveness of criminal justice. Access to justice is one of the clearest tests of whatever a criminal justice system works as it should. Strong institutions, sound legislation, and procedural safeguards are essential, but they have real value only if people can understand their rights, obtain the assistance they need, and make effective use of the justice system. For Romania, this is closely linked to the way we understand justice as a public service, one that must remain accessible, responsive, and attentive to the needs of those it serves. This perspective is also reflected in Romania's Justice System Development Strategy 2025-2029, in which access to justice is one of the key areas guiding our efforts. Our focus is increasingly on what happens beyond the legal framework itself, where barriers still exist, who is most affected by them, and how public policy can respond more effectively. Legal aid is an important part of this effort. The right to assistance must be supported by a system that enables people to obtain it when they need it. Ongoing work on the legal framework is helping us better assess how these mechanisms function and where further improvements are needed. Romania has also taken concrete steps to make the justice process more responsive to children, victims, and other people in vulnerable situations. This includes adapted hearing arrangements and continued investment in specialized training for justice professionals, with the aim of reducing secondary victimization and enabling more effective participation in proceedings. Digitalization is also changing the way justice services are delivered. Romania has invested substantially in the digital transformation of the judiciary, with significant milestones reached in 2026. The priority now is to ensure that these investments lead to more accessible procedures for citizens and a lower administrative burden, while preserving procedural safeguards and avoiding new forms of exclusion. We have sought to develop these reforms in step with the broader international work on access to justice. Romania also contributed to the expert discussions held in Brasilia in 2024, and the recommendations that emerged from that process are closely aligned with many of the issues we are addressing at the national level. Access to justice cannot be assessed only by what the law provides. It must also be assessed by how the system works for the person who needs to use it. Romania will continue working toward a justice system in which rights are not only recognized, but can also be effectively exercised, and in which reform is guided by evidence, practical experience, and cooperation. Thank you. Thanks.

Distinguished co-chairs, executive director Juma, excellencies, honorable ministers, and colleagues. It is a pleasure to join you even virtually on behalf of Saint Kitts and Nevis. The Utopian Twin Island Federation in the Caribbean. For us, access to justice is practical. Is a victim heard and protected? Is an accused person treated fairly without undue delay? And at the end of it, do our people have greater reason to trust the institutions meant to serve them? Those questions have led us to ask another. Rather than only how we bring people into the justice system more efficiently, we increasingly ask, what is the appropriate justice pathway for this person, this harm, and this community. That is becoming an organizing principle for our reforms. One example is our diversionary caution framework. The premise is simple. Not every offense requires the same response. For appropriate cases, a structured alternative to prosecution can provide accountability, address harm, and support rehabilitation, while reserving the full weight of the law for matters that require it. We have also been determined not simply to legislate and hope for the best. With UNODC's technical partnership, we have trained over 100 police, prosecutorial, judicial, and social sector personnel because diversion cannot work in one ministry, one police station, or one courtroom alone. It requires institutions to understand the pathway and their respective roles in making it work. Our restorative justice framework takes that thinking further with pathways from the police, prosecution, and courts, but also from the community. Why? Because conflict does not begin in a courtroom. It begins in homes, schools, and neighborhoods. And if the first real opportunity to address harm arises only after someone has become a victim or an accused person, we have sometimes arrived too late. This thinking also connects with our wider national approach to crime and violence. In 2025, and continued in 2026 thus far, Saint Kitts and Nevis recorded 75% reductions in homicides over the prior years. And the lowest annual figures in more than two decades. That progress gives us reason for optimism. But also a responsibility to understand what is working and how we sustain it. Our national approach has increasingly combined law enforcement with prevention, targeted intervention, and community engagement. At community level, Practitioners are already working with individuals and families, mediating disputes and intervening in emerging conflicts. The next question for us is how we strengthen those practices, how we train and support the people doing this work, establish appropriate referral pathways and safeguards, understand what interventions are effective, and monitor outcomes. so that community intervention becomes a stronger part of our wider justice response. One small, perhaps unusual example, we are advancing a community justice cup, using youth football as a platform for restorative justice, conflict resolution, and community engagement, on the premise that if young people are to internalize these values, they should encounter them somewhere other than a courtroom. There's another part of this conversation we cannot ignore. A modern justice system must also consider what happens when imprisonment is necessary. For Saint Kittan Nevis, correctional reform is an important next frontier. This means better buildings, yes. But fit for purpose infrastructure. Modern correctional management. stronger professional and technical capacity, rehabilitation programming, appropriate technology, and credible pathways back into the community. If we invest in fair trials and effective prosecution, but not in what happens during and after incarceration, the justice continuum remains unfinished. This is an area where we welcome deeper international partnership and technical cooperation. particularly expertise and support to help small island developing states build modern, rights-based, and rehabilitation-focused correctional systems, together with the infrastructure and institutional capacity necessary to sustain them. Small island developing states face real constraints of scale and resources. But I do not believe our size is only a disadvantage. In a small country, our police, prosecutors, courts, prisons, social services, and communities are not distanced from one another. That proximity allows us to connect the justice system in ways that can sometimes be more difficult in larger jurisdictions. Small states can therefore be not merely beneficiaries of justice reform, but important contributors to its development. Our work is not complete, but our direction is clear. we have made important progress in building a more responsive and connected justice system. And the next challenge is ensuring that these reforms are sustained, properly resourced, and translated into lasting institutional practice. As a small island developing state, partnership remains essential to that effort. We welcome both continued and new technical cooperation, investment, and expertise as we take this work forward. particularly in areas where specialized capacity and infrastructure are critical. We are proud of the progress made, mindful of the work ahead, and committed to continuing it. I thank you.

Well, Excellencies, distinguished delegates, this concludes our high-level segment event. I would like to sincerely thank all of our speakers for their inspiring words and the stark reminder of the importance of stepping up our efforts to ensure equal access to justice for all. Thank you so much for sharing these moments with us, and I wish you a very successful rest of the Congress. Thank you.

Ladies and gentlemen, if you can take your seats, please, so we can start. We miss it. Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. Monica Juma, our Executive Director and Director General of the United Nations Office in Vienna. Mr. Darryn Jones, Executive Director of the International Police Organization. Her Excellency, Ms. Alex Davies-Jones, Minister for Victims and Tackling Violence Against Women and Girls of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. His Excellency, Dr. Hammad Saif Al-Shamsi, Attorney General of the United Arab Emirates, Lieutenant Colonel Saeed Al-Khabi, Director, International Cooperation Department, Minister of Interior, United Arab Emirates, and Mr. Yori Abraham, Founder and Managing Director of the Global Anti-Scam Alliance. I would like to know that there is interpretation in all UN languages and that this event is also webcasted. So fraud perpetrated by organized crime groups is among the most prevalent and complex global threats. In response, in March 2026, UNODC and INTERPOL, with the support of the governments of the UK, Canada, Singapore, and with the strong engagement of the private sector, organized the first ever Global Fraud Summit. To share more what has been achieved since the summit and what lies ahead, it is now my distinct pleasure to invite Ms. Monica Juma to make her opening remarks.

Thank you, Elias. Ladies and gentlemen, I am pleased to join you today to put the spotlight on a crime that is changing rapidly in the digital era, namely fraud. I just came from the UN General Assembly High-Level Week in New York, where organized fraud was also high on the agenda. It is therefore encouraging to see this issue reflected here in Abu Dhabi particularly under the theme of accelerating justice in the digital age, because fraud shows us very clearly how technology is changing organized crime. Artificial intelligence and other digital tools allow criminal networks to operate at a scale and speed and a reach we have not seen before. They can create highly convincing and deceptive scams that reach millions of victims around the world and generate billions in illicit profit. The scale is truly staggering. For example, UNODC reports indicate financial losses of between 80 to 110 billion US dollars from scams targeting victims in Southeast Asia, Australia, New Zealand in 2025 alone. And the damage does not stop with financial loss. Behind many of these operations are people who are themselves victims. Recent estimates point to at least 300,000 people laboring in online scam compound across mainland Southeast Asia, originating from 80 countries around the world. Many are recruited through fake job offers. They are then trafficked into scam compounds where they may be abused, controlled, and forced to commit cyber fraud. And this is not confined to any one part of the world. We are seeing similar patterns of trafficking for forced criminality in Europe, East Africa, in Latin America, and so forth. Criminal networks are particularly targeting people made vulnerable by conflict, by displacement, and by economic hardship. At the same time, fraud is increasingly converging with other forms of organized crime, including money laundering, corruption, and trafficking. So the challenge before us is not simply to stop individual scams. Rather, it is to understand and disrupt the wider criminal systems that make them possible. That requires us to connect dots and to connect our response. We began building that response at the Global Fraud Summit, organized by UNODC and Interpol in Vienna in March of this year. The summit generated important political momentum and elevated the issue of organized fraud as a priority. Importantly, the event brought together the people who need to be part of the solution, governments, law enforcement, technology company, and financial institutions, the private sector, and civil society. Each of them have a unique role to play and to contribute. The message was clear. No single sector or institution can tackle fraud alone. That is why the summit also moved beyond discussion towards action. with participants endorsing a call to action and a public-private partnership framework with close to 200 endorsements and 62 additional individual pledges made. And I encourage everyone here to add their voice and your commitment to this cause, because the more countries, organizations, and companies that recognize this as a shared challenge, the more connected and effective our responses will become. We then need to carry the momentum forward. When we return from Abu Dhabi, the next stop will be Vienna at the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime Conference of Parties in October. We will launch an organized fraud community to provide a sustained platform for cooperation and action, including continued engagement with the private sector. As part of our efforts to establish a durable foundation for public-private collaboration, UNODC also recently signed a memorandum of understanding with the Global Anti-Scam Alliance present here today, and we look forward to working together on this issue. Alongside this, we will continue to build the evidence base and practical tools that countries need. This includes our forthcoming legislative guide on combating fraud, as well as regional research that helps us understand how these criminal markets are evolving. Earlier this month, for example, we launched new research on scam operations in South Asia, shedding light on the changing dynamics of trafficking in persons for forced criminality in scam operations in the region. Crucially, evidence must lead to action. Through technical assistance and capacity building, UNODC will continue to support Member States in strengthening national anti-fraud systems and legislation, cross-border cooperation, and the protection of victims and survivors. And throughout all of this, we will keep reinforcing the international legal framework that guides our efforts. The United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime remains a central tool for preventing and tackling serious organized crime through international cooperation. And the new United Nations Convention against Cybercrime complements that framework, including through the criminalization of cyber fraud and measures to secure electronic evidence. I therefore call on all member states to sign and ratify the convention so that it can enter into force and become the practical tool that is helping us to deal with this rapidly changing threat. Ladies and gentlemen, fraud may begin with a simple message on a screen, but it has a devastating human impact. Savings lost, trust shattered, and in some cases, exploitation, trafficking, and abuse. It is time to deal with this. The Global Fraud Summit gave us a momentum. This Congress gives us another opportunity to turn that momentum into action. Let us make sure that today's commitments become tomorrow's results as we work together to protect people, to strengthen cooperation and to ensure that crime does not pay. I thank you for your kind attention.

Thank you, Ms. Juma, for your remarks. And I would now like to invite our partner in this endeavor, Mr. Darren Jones from Interpol, for his opening remarks.

Excellencies, distinguished guests, law enforcement colleagues, ladies and gentlemen, good afternoon. It's indeed a pleasure for me to be with you today. I'd like to begin by extending Interpol's sincere congratulations to the United Arab Emirates for conducting such a successful conference. You have set a very high bar. for all the member states, for our international collective response to crime in all its forms, including the fraud that we're here to talk about today. In that same ambitious multilateral spirit, which stood out this year at the UNODC Interpol Global Fraud Summit held in Vienna. But the summit was never meant to be a standalone event. It was never meant to be a one off. It was designed to leave a lasting impact, a sharper understanding of how fraud networks operate, stronger channels for law enforcement and financial intelligence unit to exchange information and a shared political commitment to treat organized fraud not as a scattered and isolated scam but as the transnational criminal Enterprise it has become the partnership between you and ODC and Interpol showed is possible when normative expertise and operational capability work hand in hand. Turning that shared commitment into action requires sophisticated technology and trust. Interpol works constantly to connect international law enforcement agencies across its 196 member states, providing access to critical law enforcement information through its secure communications channels. Interpol notices and diffusions as well as a wide spectrum of other critical law enforcement data, such as stolen weapons, stolen vehicles, DNA, images of child sexual exploitation, and even databases that can connect synthetic drugs found on opposite sides of the planet. If you've ever heard me speak before, then you very likely heard me say, "Money is the lifeblood of transnational organized crime. Information is the lifeblood of global law enforcement. Ladies and gentlemen, the way global law enforcement prevails in the fight against transnational organized crime is through the robust sharing of data and exploitation of data through increasingly sophisticated analysis. That's the way we win this fight. Data is always also very much at the heart of any modern fraud investigation. Every fraudulent transaction Every compromised account, every scam compound leaves a unique digital footprint. And our ability to disrupt these networks depends on our collective ability to recognize, share, analyze, and act on this information faster than the criminal networks can adapt. This is where Interpol adds a unique value, turning this fragmented information into a coherent global intelligence picture. That intelligence picture then informs law enforcement action on the ground across our member states. Everyone in this room is a member of Interpol. This is your organization. For example, this month, Interpol will launch Task Force Operation Shadow Storm, dedicated to supporting, dedicated, supported by the UK, thank you very much, will locate scam centers, identify and arrest syndicate members, and disrupt their illicit financial flows, but most importantly, It will dismantle both the physical as well as the digital infrastructure underpinning these scams. The task force is structured around four pillars. There will be a victim cell to centralize intelligence gathering across the affected country. There will be a financial cell to target the illicit financial hubs, tracing, freezing assets. There will be a private sector cell to integrate the incredibly ever-increasing important intelligence on digital infrastructure and emerging threats. And there will be an operational cell to address the human trafficking, which is almost always found associated with these scam centers. 22 member states and Europol have already joined this effort, spanning Southeast Asia, the Americas, the Pacific, Africa, the Gulf, and Europe. This is what implementing the Global Fraud Summit's outcome looks like in practice. Law enforcement operations targeting the actual infrastructure of fraud itself. But beyond Shadow Storm, I want to reaffirm Interpol's ongoing operational support and commitment to all its member states through our tools, use of our tools, expertise and teams. Let me give you one other example. Operation Jackal 4, conducted from November 25 to June of 26, brought together 22 countries across six continents to target financial networks behind West African organized crime. Interpol facilitated the critical law enforcement intelligence sharing, the specialized training to attack this transnational organized crime group. And together, the efforts led to dozens of arrests and the seizure of millions of dollars in illicit assets, as well as the disruption of international money laundering networks stretching from Argentina to Romania and from South Africa to Italy. Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen, the fight against organized fraud is far, far from over. But with the foundation set by the Global Fraud Summit and operations like Shadow Storm and Jackal, we are collectively, aggressively moving forward from shared concern to a shared action. Thank you very much.

Thank you, Darren. I would like to highlight here the close partnership we're enjoying with Interpol across so many areas of organized crime, so we're very appreciative. And Now I would like to ask Her Excellency Ms. Alex Davies-Jones to give us a perspective of the United Kingdom, who has been also a very close supporter of our work on food. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Distinguished delegates and colleagues, I would like to start by thanking the UNODC for organizing this really important high-level event. The United Kingdom Government is determined to tackle fraud, which is why the UK was proud to be the main donor to the UNODC-Interpol global fraud summit and why I am privileged and pleased to join you today. We all know that fraud is a significant transnational threat. We also know that it is a threat that, sadly, continues to grow and one that continues to affect all of our nations. In the UK alone, fraud now makes up 47 per cent of all crime and it costs an estimated 14.4 billion pounds each year. It is clear that a whole system approach and response is needed to tackle this crime. Governments, law enforcement, industry, civil society and academia We all have a role to play in protecting people and businesses from this devastating impact. But goodwill alone is not enough. Tackling fraud requires sustained political leadership and collective action. That is why the call to action was a critical outcome of the summit. countries pledging to work together to tackle fraud and committing to strengthening our international law enforcement response. Now, six months on from the summit, we must turn our focus to that implementation. The call to action provides that common framework for the response. The challenge now is to translate those commitments into practical action and, importantly, tangible results. nationally through stronger domestic responses and internationally through deeper co-operation across borders and sectors. For the United Kingdom, that starts at home. We are delivering our new fraud strategy, which was published in March earlier this year. Our refreshed strategy sets out exactly how we will respond to the evolving threat of fraud by disrupting fraud before it reaches the target. safeguarding individuals and businesses by building resilience, and, importantly, responding with victim support and justice. We will invest 250 million into our fraud response over the next three years, including 31 million on our new online crime centre. That will bring key partners together from across the public and private sectors so that we can enable rapid data sharing and faster disruption of fraud. We will also do more to educate the public and protect those who have been defrauded. We are continuing with our national comms campaign, Stop. Think. Fraud, to give the public the tools that they need to spot and avoid fraud from happening. We have also committed to publishing a fraud victims charter next year. That will create greater consistency for victim support, both across the system and across the country. Fraud crosses borders, so domestic action will never be alone. It is not enough. Our international efforts, from key partners, are a key pillar of our response. and it is why we are immensely proud to be supporting Interpol in this work. That global fraud task force, which will strengthen our international law enforcement response and, crucially, dismantle that transnational fraud network. So my message today is simple. We must use that call to action to turn the commitments that we made in Vienna into practical action. The summit gave us political momentum. We must now maintain it, grow it, and translate it into a real-world impact. I will, sadly, have to leave shortly, but that is only to continue this conversation with Ms. Monica Duma on how we can better use that cooperation internationally. I hope today's discussion and the wider Crime Congress actually helps us to drive that collective action. Thank you again sincerely to the UNODC for bringing us together today and all of our speakers and partners in this effort. The UK remains, and I want to reassure you all, committed to working together to deliver against that global fight against fraud.

Thank you. Thank you, Madam Minister, and for your commitment and also the UK's unwavering support over this issue. And I would now like to turn to our host country. and invite His Excellency Dr. Ahmad Saif Al-Samsee, Attorney General of the United Arab Emirates, to offer his views on the issue. Thank you.

Thank you. Your Excellencies, dear guests, organized fraud is a common challenge, and we have already heard how serious this transnational crime is. I think we need to forge a mechanism at both the domestic and international levels. Tackling fraud, especially organized fraud, requires an integrated system that ensures that the right piece of information is received in a timely manner to be translated into an action. So this piece of information should be received in a timely manner and should be translated into action. And this action is double or is two-fold. At the domestic level, and the international cooperation. And effective international cooperation starts domestically, starts from within, through coordinating channels, secured channels to combat fraud that work around the clock and receive the critical information in a timely manner and exchange the same with competent authorities. This also requires a clear national methodology that identifies urgent actions, starting with the moment the report is received, to be able to identify the perpetrators and trace money whilst taking the important or the necessary procedures and measures to maintain assets. Also, we can employ artificial intelligence to analyze information and monitor patterns of fraud, and this will expedite detection and response. This is at the domestic level. Now I'll speak about deepening and strengthening international cooperation and exchange of information. Speed is the key word because fraud proceeds could be transferred across countries in a split second. That's why speed is key, especially speed in exchange, speedy exchange of information. Thus, direct, cooperate and secured communication channels between counterparts is crucial. Also, we need to benefit from existing international networks to give access to information and facilitate tracing of assets whilst taking the necessary preventive measures until until official MLA requests are completed. This eventually deprives perpetrators from criminal proceeds and helps in the case of reparations. In the meantime, we have to strengthen MLA or mutual legal assistance and extradition. We could also form joint investigation teams, because this eventually helps in gathering evidence, tracing assets, and recovering the same. All those measures should be taken within the framework of domestic legislation and international conventions, especially the United Nations Convention against transnational organized crime to ensure upholding legal guarantees and safeguarding information. And the main challenge is not in our capacity to exchange information, but to shorten the time between discovering crime exchanging information and tracing the proceeds across borders, because the speedy exchange of information is very crucial. Thus, we need to strengthen cooperation amongst law enforcement agencies, as well as with the authorities of investigation and conviction, and we need to accelerate the exchange of information and cooperation with counterparts and peer organizations. Thank you for your attention.

Thank you, Your Excellency. And I know that Ms. Juma and Ms. Davies-John need to depart, so thank you very much. I would now like to continue with another representative from the United Arab Emirates, Lieutenant Colonel Saeed Al-Kabi, Director of International Cooperation from the Ministry of Interior, United Arab Emirates. You have the floor, sir.

Your Excellencies, thank you for having me with you here on the stage. First, I would like to express my sincere appreciation to our partners and colleagues for organizing this event and this important panel discussion. Also, I would like to thank all the participants for joining us here today, having the same goal to combat crime and fighting against scams and fraud. I'm Lieutenant Colonel Said Al Kabe, Director of International Cooperation Department at the Ministry of Interior of the United Arab Emirates, the strategic funding member of Gaza, the Global Antiskum Alliance. I will keep the brief of the Global Antiskum Alliance for my colleagues here, Yuri. As we have a short time to discuss our international efforts, I would like to briefly introduce an international operation initiative led by the United Arab Emirates called Confrontation Ghost. We launched this operation last June. We will conclude in this coming October. We expect to announce the final outcomes of this operation on at the end of October. We currently have more than 30 countries joining us on this operation, represented by their ministries of interiors and their countries, along with 17 private sectors, and of course, our partners from Interpol and Gaza. As the operation is still ongoing, I cannot announce the final outcomes yet. Until we jointly agree with our partners how are we going to present it to the media and for the public, hopefully we can present it in the upcoming Gaza event on Bangkok coming soon. What I can share today that we have a strong cooperation with our partners, sharing information. We have found new methods of fraud. We have to study these methods. We have to analyze it. We have to find a solution to address it. We have to work all together to reach to our goals. Finally, from this stage, I would like to clarify that as the operation is still ongoing, we warmly welcome our partner who can be an add value on this operation. Everyone has a role. Law enforcement agencies, financial institutions, social media platforms, private sectors, tech companies, you can work in your field to be an add value on this operation. So let's work together, be practical, not only talk action, working side by side, we will protect the world from the scourge of fraud. Thank you so much.

Thank you, Lieutenant Colonel. And I would now like to turn to Mr. Uri Abraham, managing director of Gaza. A lot has been said about the organization, so we're looking forward to your remarks, please.

Thank you very much, Elias. It's an honor that we have been allowed to sign an MOU with the UNODC, and we're very honored to be here. But I can imagine that not everybody knows the Global Anti-Scam Alliance. So we are a nonprofit organization, but we truly operate globally. We have 250 members, divided across Africa, Latin America, North America, Europe, Asia, and Australia. We have both representatives of governments in our Prize reward, as well as commercial organizations. And government representatives from Australia, Belgium, Fiji, Netherlands, Singapore, and of course, also the United Arab Emirates in the form of Lieutenant Colonel Al-Khabe. We also have commercial organizations, nearly all the big tech companies, Amazon, Meta, Google, but also the International Banking Federation representing 18,000 banks, and the GSMA representing about 80% of the telecom operators. We know that scams are a huge problem, and with the rise of AI and organized crime, this new business model will unfortunately only grow. We do a survey amongst 50,000 consumers every year across 42 different countries. And based on our data, we estimate that between half and one trillion US dollars is lost in scams every year. However, this does not highlight the real damage of scams. First, the emotional trauma of scams is significant and it's ruining lives. Victims of fraud do not only unjustly so, feel a strong sense of shame, but are often ridiculed by friends, family, and in some cases, law enforcement. As a result, scams are one of the most underreported types of crime worldwide. And we believe that depending on the country, only 3% to 18% of scams are actually reported to law enforcement. Fraud, however, does not only destroy individual lives. It affects our economies and drags down GDP, destroying the trust in society and the digital economy. Developing nations are actually hit way harder by scams than the richer countries. People in Argentina, Brazil, South Africa, Kenya, Nigeria, and Southeast Asia are losing way more money as a percentage of their GDP than in the West. In the Netherlands, we estimate that between 0.2% and 0.4% of GDP is lost every year in online fraud. However, in some of the countries I just named, this is a tenfold. Our members believe that we can only turn the tide on scams if we join forces on a global level across all sectors. This applies to internet service providers, making sure that scammers do not get access to domains and hosting companies. Advertising platforms, removing scam ads in real time. Telecom operators, blocking scam calls and text messages. and banks blocking scam transactions to prevent people from losing money. In order to prevent scams, we all need to treat scams as a national security issue, requiring a full spectrum response across our society. The only way we can prevent scams is by increasing the cost of scams and lowering the rate of success. However, this is not sufficient. Real-time cross-data, global data sharing is essential to identify and take down infrastructure across the entire scam chain. GASA has been one of the foundation partners of the Global Signal Exchange, and now more than 40 of our members and governments are sharing one million signals every day across the Global Signal Exchange, an incredible amount, and it's growing continuously. Hereby, policymakers play a pivotal role in allowing the sharing of information faster across sectors and across borders. We need to make sure that countries create a strong incentive so that the right data is shared in a safe way to protect the public from this threat. Scammers operate globally. This is why we need to rethink how law enforcement must work. with criminals more and more loosely connected and not hierarchically organized like traditional gangs. The delay in mutual legal assistance and execution of arrest warrants is unacceptable. Fraudsters too rarely are caught for their crimes. According to the World Economic Forum, only 0.05% of all cyber criminals are actually ended up behind bars. Ghana therefore fully supports initiatives like the Interpol Operation Shadow Storm. However, in the end, we believe that every country needs its own national anti-scum center in its own form, like the ones in Singapore and in the United Kingdom, to counter scams within their country, but also be the linking pin to other national anti-scum centers across the world. We do not only bring together the global community to share knowledge on scams. We also work together with our members to make concrete recommendations to both companies, how they can better protect their users, and to governments, how they can protect their citizens and make them more resilient against scams. We also offer concrete solutions as we launched at the UN Fraud Summit last March. The first one is Scam.org, which is freely available to any government. It's a chatbot, and it allows people to check if something is a scam, a website, a phone number, a cryptocurrency address, a picture, a video, to report a scam to not only their own authorities, but also authorities elsewhere, and to get victim support, which is a crucial component. And as I said, we offer this platform for free to any country with their own language and, of course, with their own branding. The second initiative is spotscam.org. One of our biggest shared challenges is that the global population believes in 73% of the cases that they can