Beating fraud, it pays to talk

Fraud has been described as a “silent crime” but it is not a victimless crime – it costs the UK £30bn each year and costs
each adult £621 per year so Action Fraud, a national centre to report fraud and seek guidance and advice, is in operation

Payback – giving criminals cash to communities: GMP’s PC Rick Taylor (third left, back), PC Dave Fenton (front left) and Chief Supt Caroline Ball (front right) pictured with youth club members

Launched initially in October 2009 in the West Midlands area and now rolled out across the north-east of the country, Action Fraud works closely with the police and provides a valuable link between forces when criminals act across large geographical areas.

Fraud has been described as a “silent crime” but it is not a
victimless crime. It knows no boundaries and deeply affects
tens of thousands of people in the UK each year.

It is a crime that is second only to the illegal drugs trade in terms of its impact on the UK and, on average, it costs each adult living in the UK around £621 per year. However, the human cost is even higher because proceeds of fraud are often used to fund serious crimes such as drug smuggling and people trafficking.

Most victims of fraud do not report the crime. Victims of
fraud often don’t want to talk about what’s happened to them
because they feel embarrassed and ashamed – fraudsters rely
on that silence.

But they can fight back by talking. The National Fraud
Authority (NFA) has launched Action Fraud, a national fraud
reporting centre that provides a single point of contact for fraud victims where they can both report a fraud and seek guidance and advice.

Chief executive of the NFA, Dr Bernard Herdan, said: “Action
Fraud is at the heart of our strategy to make the UK a more
hostile environment for fraud.

“Victims of fraud often don’t want to talk about it because
they feel embarrassed. They not only suffer a financial loss but a loss of self-esteem because they blame themselves for being taken in. But the best way to fight fraud and fraudsters is to get people talking about it and reporting it to Action Fraud.”

Action Fraud provides a clear signpost for reporting all types
of fraud, including identity theft, investment, credit card and
consumer fraud.

At the same time, it gives law enforcement and counter-fraud
agencies better information to better target fraudsters, better
protect the public and bring criminals to justice by providing
vital information to the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau (NFIB).

This collaboration between the police forces, the NFIB and Action Fraud will help tighten the net on fraudsters.

City of London
City of London Police is the national lead force for fraud, and is leading the implementation of the NFIB. Commissioner Mike Bowron explained: “One of the biggest challenges we face in
combating fraud is the reluctance of victims to come forward.

“People often feel they have somehow ‘fallen’ for a scam
and hold some responsibility for having lost money, but this is
simply not the case. These fraudsters are sophisticated criminals who use high-pressure sales techniques to convince victims to part with their cash.

“There is no shame in becoming a victim and it is crucial that the crime is reported, so that these criminals can be caught. Action Fraud, which we have worked with the NFA to develop, will make that reporting easier and make life significantly more difficult for fraudsters.”

Dorset
Dorset’s Detective Chief Superintendent Richard Burkmar said:
“Action Fraud will support victims, help prevent fraud and better enable Dorset Police to investigate crime by giving us access to national intelligence.

“Fraudsters can target people in Dorset regardless of where
they are based, so by providing a national reporting centre we will be in a much stronger position to tackle fraud locally.”

Victim support
Victims can also gain access to support by reporting fraud to Action Fraud. Victim Support helps thousands of fraud victims
every year and understands just how devastating the consequences of such a crime can be.

Up until now, most of their referrals have come from the police, but Action Fraud will also be able to refer people to Victim
Support, who help every victim of crime regardless of when it
happened, and whether or not it has been reported to the police.

The National Fraud Authority estimates that fraud costs the UK
£30 billion each year and targets every section of society, young and old, rich and poor, individuals and businesses – everyone is potentially at risk.

Research into victims’ experiences was jointly led by the
Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) and the NFA. The
research report – A Better Deal for Fraud Victims: Research into Victims’ Needs and Experience – was conducted last summer.

Using face-to-face interviews, focus groups and telephone
interviews, almost 800 victims provided information about the
fraud activity committed against them and their attitudes to the support available.

This report adds to the growing body of research and presents
new findings from surveys of the largest group of fraud victims in the UK to date.

Greater Manchester
A successful youth club in North Manchester is benefiting from £5,000 of criminals’ cash made available through Payback, GMP’s project to ensure criminal gains are taken from criminals and ploughed back into communities.

Since the set-up of the scheme in September 2009, antisocial
behaviour on Friday evenings has reduced. Between 30 and 50 teenagers attend the youth club after school to play sport and get to know their local police officers.

Crooks’ cash: South Yorkshire gives £7,000 of criminals’ ill-gotten gains to help Sheffield boxing club

Officers helped set up the scheme with Andy Clarke, who
works as an Early Intervention Behavioural Specialist within
schools in the area and leads the youth club.

PC Dave Fenton said: “We have received some really
good feedback from the local community since the start of this
project. I go down to the youth club most Fridays with PC Rick Taylor and I thoroughly enjoy the time I spend there.

“The level of interest in the club has been fantastic and I have
developed really strong relationships with these young people
and have even had expressions of interest in joining the police.”

Andy Clarke said: “I am proud of what we have achieved so
far, I am surprised at how well it has worked. Each week officers come down to the school and get involved. In the early weeks of the club, the lads really found it difficult to interact with the officers but now they know each other on first-name terms.

The youth club is part of the ongoing work across the North
Manchester division to tackle antisocial behaviour under
Operation Synergy.

This operation runs every Friday night with the help of youth
intervention officers and safety co-ordinators to help tackle youth nuisance, listen to residents concerns and find alternative activities for teenagers to take part in.

South Yorkshire
South Yorkshire’s Economic Crime Unit manager, Graham Wragg, said: “By working together, Action Fraud and South Yorkshire
Police will be able to offer a better level of service to the public and, ultimately, bring more offenders to justice.

“We also have the Why Should They? campaign across the
Yorkshire and Humber region, encouraging residents to ask the
question, why should criminals be allowed to live a life of luxury
at the expense of others?

“I would encourage victims of fraud or anyone who may suspect fraud is taking to place to ask these same questions and report it to the police.”

South Yorkshire Police has seen two high-profile fraud cases
come to successful climaxes. Operations Matrix and Metric saw a total of 11 people convicted and sentenced for fraud offences after considerable efforts by the force’s Economic Crime Unit.

Graham Wragg added: “Cases such as these tend to be long and complicated and in the future Action Fraud will greatly assist in helping the force to solve such crimes and bring the criminals to justice.”

Crooks cash
Tens of thousands of pounds seized from crooks will be used to
fight crime and help communities in South Yorkshire.

Recent government figures revealed that South Yorkshire
Police is to receive just over £437,077 as a result of work
carried out under the Proceeds of Crime Act between October
and December 2009.

The total is the third-highest in England and Wales, with South
Yorkshire only surpassed by two much larger forces – the Metropolitan Police Service and West Yorkshire Police.

The money will be used to fund further POCA work, as well as
being ploughed back into local communities through grants for
organisations and projects such as diversionary activities. The
picture below shows a Sheffieldbased boxing club receiving a £7,000 grant from South Yorkshire Police.

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