Fraud Top 10
last updated 09/08/10
Top 10 Websites Top 10 News Stories Top 10 Statistics
Top 10 Websites
There are endless sources of advice and information available on the internet. Some are out of date or unreliable. I have carefully selected sites which I believe are reliable sources and in each case I give a short description of the source for your reassurance. I find these websites to be amongst the most informative. Many will contain further links to other sources of information.
1ACTION FRAUD – The UK's National Fraud Reporting Centre
ACTION FRAUD is the place for you to find out about fraud. It is the UK’s national fraud reporting centre. If you’ve been scammed, ripped off or conned, there is something you can do about it - get in touch with them.
2IDENTITY FRAUD – Advice
This website has been produced by a combination of public and private sector bodies, including Police Forces and The Home Office, to combat the threat of identity theft.
3SCAMS and rip-offs – Avoid them
Consumer Direct is the government-funded telephone and online service offering information and advice on consumer issues. Consumer Direct is funded by the Office of Fair Trading and delivered in partnership with Local Authority Trading Standards Services.
4CARD FRAUD - Prevention and Advice
Card Watch is a UK banking industry initiative that aims to raise awareness of card fraud prevention. It is managed by APACS, the UK payments association.
5ON-LINE BANKING – Make it Safer
Bank Safe Online is the UK banking industry's initiative to help online banking customers stay safe online. This site is run by APACS, the UK Payments Association on behalf of its member banks.
6SHARE FRAUD – get advice from Op. Archway
A City of London Police operation specifically targeting 'Boiler Room' Scams (Investment in bogus shares)
7POLICE FRAUD ALERT – "Sterling" offers advice on a variety of frauds
Sterling is the Metropolitan Police initiative to tackle Economic Crime throughout London
8CIFAS - The Uk's Fraud Prevention Service
Following specification by the Home Office under the Serious Crime Act 2007, public authorities are able to join CIFAS and share information reciprocally to prevent fraud.
9EXPERIAN
is one of the main UK credit reference agencies – they offer fraud prevention advice
10FINANCIAL SERVICES AUTHORITY
official site – check if Financial Service Providers (Banks, etc) are registered or not, plus more
Top 10 News Stories
These are media headlines of news stories, loosely relating to fraud, which you may find useful and interesting.
1The human cost of fraud - Read the accounts of 11 victims of fraud and the impact it had on their lives.account'
Action Fraud - August 2010
2Broker faces jail after £3m HSBC gamble fails.
Times - May 2010
3Huge rise in 'hidden' credit card crime.
Times - May 2010
4Dating conman who duped women of thousands jailed for five years.
Times - May 2010
5Watchdog finds massive 'suckers list'. The FSA is contacting 38,000 people targeted by share fraudsters.
Times - May 2010
6ID cards were a bad idea from the start. Philip Johnston argues that there always was a much better alternative to this costly plan.
Telegraph - June 2010
7Is Europe heading for a meltdown? This financial crises is worse than the sub-prime crash of 2008 because the sums are so much bigger and it is governments that are in dire straits. Edmund Conway explains the dangers.
Telegraph - May 2010
8100,000 computers infected with bank scamming technology - Thousands of people are at risk of having their personal data used by cybercriminals to commit fraud.
Action Fraud - August 2010
9Fraudster's family face losing assets to pay court order
SFO - June 2010
10Time is not right for an economic crime agency. Quick fixes are an inadequate response to criminal activity that costs the economy £30bn a year
Guardian - June 2010
Top 10 Statistics
I am very wary of statistical evidence unless I have checked it and put it in context. I think anecdotal evidence is much more fun and, although it can be equally misleading, is no less worthy of being called evidence.
Fraud is often perpetrated by using statistics out of context.
I reproduce a selection of random statistics below which are out of context and therefore should not be used alone; nevertheless they are genuine statistics from respected sources and have some connection with fraud.
I hope they at least create debate.
1There are 43 Police Forces covering the counties and cities of England and Wales. There are complicated rules governing which Police Force is responsible for investigating fraud dependant on several factors such as the location of the suspect at the time of the fraud.
[Source: Home Office]
2 More bogus insurance claims than ever - There were more than 2,300 fraudulent insurance claims every week last year in Britain.
[Source: Action Fraud - July 2010]
3More than £1bn fraud losses in six months - New figures have found that fraud losses in the UK increased to over £1bn during the first six months of the year, which is almost the same as the whole of 2008.
[Source:Action Fraud - July 2010]
4Previous figures from CIFAS highlighted the sudden rise in facility takeover fraud, and this trend has continued. From January to September 2008, facility takeovers increased by 174%.
Facility takeover (also known as account takeover) occurs when the fraudster hijacks an individual's account(s) in order to 'take over' and control one or more of them.
[Source: CIFAS]
5According to KPMG’s annual fraud barometer, the value of criminal frauds prosecuted in the courts reached a 13-year high of £1.1 billion in 2008
[Source: Times Online]
6The recent downward trend in the number of identity fraud victims filed by CIFAS Members has continued. 54,713 cases were recorded in the first three quarters of 2008, a 4.5% decrease from the year before.
[Source: CIFAS]
7Fraud loss figures released on 19 March 2009 by APACS, the UK payments association, show that card fraud losses totalled £609.9m in 2008. The two main areas of fraud were on transactions not protected by chip and PIN: specifically internet, phone and mail order fraud; and fraud abroad - committed by criminals using stolen UK card details in countries yet to upgrade to chip and PIN - which has nearly doubled in two years.
[Source: APACS]
8Plastic card fraud losses up 14% to £301.7m in first six months of 2008.
Fraud abroad accounts for 40% of total card fraud losses.
Cheque fraud losses up by 35% to £20.4m
[Source: APACS]
9"The vast majority of fraud does not come to the attention of the police and for this reason this report focuses particularly on data from finance industry sources. Information from APACS (the UK payments association) shows there were 2.7 million fraudulent transactions on UK issued credit cards in the UK in 2007, an increase of 20 per cent on the 2.3 million recorded in 2006. Those types of card fraud more easily prevented by the introduction of Chip and PIN technology (for example, losses attributable to frauds from lost or stolen cards) continue to decline but for other types of card fraud (for example, the use of card-not-present fraud) there were rises."
[Source: Home Office Crime Figures on Fraud]
10In January 1999 Sussex Police employed 11 people dedicated to fraud investigation; by January 2009 the number was 7.
[Source: personal knowledge]