Public urged to report scams to Action Fraud

The deputy head of the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau (NFIB) has advised victims of fraud to report these directly to a new agency rather than their local police force.

Detective Superintendent David Clarke said the agency, Action Fraud, the national fraud reporting centre, was better equipped to handle reports of these crimes if it is not known who is behind them; especially if they are online or phone scams.

“Online crime is difficult for local forces to handle as they deal with individual complaints. This means they may not get to see the whole picture, how many victims there are and how much money is involved," he explained.

Computeractive was talking to DS Clarke about the spate of cold calls hitting the UK, where people are being told that their PC is infected with a virus or running slowly.We recorded a video of the PC support cold-call scam in action.

One reader told us he was advised by his local force to contact the Internet Watch Foundation. This organisation exists to tackle websites hosting images of child abuse, not cyber crime or fraud.

All calls to Action Fraud are logged. If the caller is the victim of a crime, a crime reference number is given. Even if a person has not lost money they can report the scam to the agency.

Although they may not be a victim of a crime and won't get a crime reference number, Action Fraud will give advice and help to all callers, said DS Clarke.

"People don’t feel as if they are being fobbed off,” he explained.

DS Clarke said the NFIB was aware of the cold call issue but it felt the problem was currently ‘low level' as few reports had been made through Action Fraud.

However, we know some people who have received these phone calls have been so alarmed that their PC is infected they have handed over sums of money ranging from £65 to nearly £200. This is so the caller can 'fix' the 'problem'; the victim pays either for a code, which purportedly allows a ‘technician’ remote access to the PC to fix the problem, or to buy security software.

But since the police are unaware how widespread the problem is, it is not being investigated.

We were told that if Action Fraud received more complaints the situation may change and an investigation launched.

Scams reported to Action Fraud are collated by the NFIB. This new police unit run by the City of London Police, works closely with the Serious Organised Crime Agency, the Met's Police Central ecrime Unit, as well as other organisations such as the Office of Fair Trading and banks.

It can build up a picture of an ongoing fraud, and hand on the details to the relevant police department if an investigation into a scam is going to be launched.

We would urge anyone who has received these calls or has been a victim of a recent online fraud to contact Action Fraud with as much information as possible; whether they have handed over money or not.

The telephone number for Action Fraud is 0300 123 2040.