Online Fraud

Thank you for contacting me about online fraud.
 
The National Crime Agency, with more than 4,000 police officers, is leading the fight against fraud. Part of this, the Economic Crime Command, fights economic crime by undermining criminals and educating those most at risk of attack. It shares intelligence and knowledge with partners, disrupting criminal activity, and seizing assets. The Government is also improving the reporting and awareness of fraud at the same time.
 
As you may know, Action Fraud is the national reporting point for fraud and cyber crime. It takes reports of crimes from members of the public and businesses online or via its dedicated helpline. These reports are then analysed by the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau (NFIB), which looks for links between separate victims of the same scams, and matches information in Action Fraud reports with other data it holds. The NFIB then prepares intelligence packages and sends these to the police force best placed to consider enforcement action. It also carries out work to disrupt the enablers of this criminality, such as having websites used by criminals taken down.
 
Action Fraud is also embarking on an improvement plan. It has resulted in a reduction in the number of complaints, which should be welcomed, but the Government is still keen to ensure that local police forces in particular treat and correspond with victims in a way that enables them to understand the action that is being taken to deal with these crimes. I will continue to monitor the situation closely.
 
I can assure you that the Government is firmly determined to tackle fraud to save hardworking taxpayers' money, bring criminals to justice and protect people who play by the rules.
 
Thank you again for taking the time to contact me.