NFRC will not be operational until next summer

The public will not be able to report online fraud to the proposed National Fraud Reporting Centre (NFRC) until next summer.

The NFRC, which is led by the City of London police, will be the first-ever central point of contact for the public to report cyber-crimes. When fully operational the public will be able to report online fraud directly to it by telephone and online instead of through their local police force or bank.

Initial reports last autumn suggested it may have been fully operational this year. It is currently running regional trials and taking reports from selected police forces and organisations such as the Office of Fair Trading.

But at the annual Infosec security conference and exhibition today, Superintendent Charlie McMurdie said the latest information she had received indicated that the NFRC would not be fully operational until 2010.

"It is a massive undertaking and a huge of amount of work setting up so we need to ensure we get it right," she explained.

She said that the public could still report online fraud and identity theft to their local police station. However, she admitted that currently, the individual capabilities of police forces around England and Wales does vary.

"The trouble is you may make a report to a police officer who has no idea what you are talking about or how to deal with it," she said.

The NFRC was created as part of the National E-Crime programme, which was designed to improve police response, knowledge and effectiveness when dealing with online fraud.

This programme has created a network of UK law enforcement bodies and new units, which fall under the umbrella of the Police Central e-crime Unit (PCe-cU). Led by Superintendent McMurdie, the PCe-cU is also the lead e-crime response unit for dealing with serious online fraud.

It currently has about 30 police officers and, although it is only six months old, it was recently successful in busting a crime ring in the UK. The PCe-cU is also responsible for increasing the law enforcement capabilities of the UK’s 43 regional police forces.

Working with the Association of Chief Police Officers (Acpo) it will also ensure individual forces have the training to deal with reports of cyber-crime and implement standard responses. It will also work with the NFRC and another new body, the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau (NFIB).

Superintendent McMurdie warned the public to be realistic, however. She said the police will not be able to follow up every individual report of online fraud, but that this shouldn’t deter people reporting.

This is because cyber-criminals often launch huge schemes that net them millions but individually people may lose less than £100. The NFRC will therefore pass reports on to the NFIB, which will collate the data to assess the seriousness of the crimes.

"We can’t follow up every problem from people, for example, who have problems with an Ebay trader. But if, for example, we find 2,000 people around the country are victims of the same fraud we will," she said.