UK Police Join International Anti-Scam Day

The Serious and Organised Crime unit (SOCA) is leading the UK’s involvement in a day of action to publicise the growing threat from online fraud and other forms of extortion and criminal activity.

Taking place today, the campaign sees law enforcement bodies from the UK, US, Canada, Australia and the Netherlands coordinating to warn about scams which cost the public an estimated £3.5 billion a year in the UK alone.

Technology is playing a major role in the emergence of new types of fraud according to SOCA. Although the public has got the warning about email scams – infamously emanating from Nigeria – other more sophisticated attacks are emerging all the time, the agency warned.

Suicide For Some Victims

“Once people get wise to one scam, the criminals will switch to something else,” said SOCA fraud expert Colin Woodcock. “Scams and frauds are often used to fund other crimes such as drug dealing and people trafficking. Individuals are losing hundreds of thousands of pounds, losing their homes and, in extreme cases, losing their lives when they can’t face the consequences of what has happened to them.”

According to SOCA, the traditional Nigerian “419” scam emails are “just the tip of the iceberg”. The organisation revealed that it had intercepted around 200 scam emails in Ghana recently that could have resulted in fraud if they had gotten through to the recipients. The agency said it has written to the individuals concerned.

The agency has also warned about scammers using mobile phone calls to lure victims onto expensive services. “A ‘missed call’ fraud will call a mobile phone for one ring only to entice people to ring back. When they do, they are calling a specially set up premium rate phone number without knowing it. Some fraudsters even use a recording of a phone ringing to keep people on the line for longer,” the agency warned.

Other UK bodies taking part include the National Fraud Authority, the Metropolitan Police and the Financial Services Authority. Bernard Herdan, chief executive officer of the National Fraud Authority urged the public to improve the reporting of fraud.

“Fraud is a terrible crime yet often people feel embarrassed when they become a victim and so stay silent,” he said. “We want every victim of fraud to report it to www.actionfraud.org.uk, to stand up to fraudsters and help us all work together to make the UK a more hostile environment for fraudsters.”

In the run up to today’s day of publicity, law enforcement agencies have been tackling several gangs thought to be behind mass email fraud. “City of London Police carried out searches and arrests at a number of locations across England targeting the criminal networks behind mass marketing frauds,” SOCA stated.

Not Victimless Crime

“City of London Police works hard to highlight that this is not a victimless crime, so it is pleasing to see both the national and international response to this threat,” said detective chief superintendent Steve Head, from City of London Police’s Economic Crime Directorate. “We all recognise the benefits of collaboration and pro-active prevention campaigns supported by robust enforcement activity.”

But despite the need for international collaboration to target e-crime and other forms of fraud, some experts have questioned whether government’s are really prepared to cooperate on the problem. Speaking to eWEEK Europe UK at the Infosecurity Europe 2010 conference, Dr. Larry Ponemon, chairman and founder of the IT think-tank the Ponemon Institute, warned that the fight against cybercrime requires international cooperation, but that the process was failing currently.

Specifically, Ponemon said that most countries were failing to even bridge the divide between business and government on cybercrime issues – let alone talk to one another about the problem.

“Basically what we are finding is that the business government cooperartion is nearly non-existent,” he said. “It does vary from country to country but it is nearly non-existent.”