Prime Minister petitioned over police's online card fraud role

Online credit card fraud specialist Early Warning has launched a petition on No 10's website calling on the Government to reverse a Home Office decision to change reporting procedures for online card fraud.

The change, which came into force on 1 April, means people no longer report cheque or card fraud to the police. Anyone who is a victim of this type of crime is now being told to report it to their bank or building society only.

The Home Office told Computeractive, when it broke the story back in February, that the changes brought in under the Fraud Act 2006 would make it easier for consumers to report online fraud.

They will still be refunded by the bank unless it can be proved they were negligent with their card details.

A Home Office representative said: "Police forces at present will often not confirm a crime has taken place before they have had this confirmed by the financial institution that has issued the card …[making] financial institution the first point of contact [is] removing an unnecessary layer of bureaucracy and making it easier for customers."

Online payments organisation Apacs said banks will still ask the police to investigate large cases of credit card fraud.

However, after we ran the story, we received phone calls from serving police officers, who told us they had no idea this change in reporting procedure was going to take place and they expressed deep concern.

This concern was also echoed by security companies such as Early Warning. It believes that because it will now be up to financial institutions to report these crimes to the police, crime figures will not truly reflect the seriousness of the crime.

Andrew Goodwill, managing director of Early Warning, said the move is downgrading card fraud from a crime to an industry problem. He queried whether the banks would have the incentive to report these crimes to the police.

The petition asks the Prime Minister to instruct the UK Police to again be part of the reporting procedure and actively investigate credit card fraud / online auction fraud.