National Policing Lead For Economic Crime. Annual Review

National Policing Lead For Economic Crime Annual Review 2015 - 16 Foreword 2 National Coordination 4 National Protect Strategy 6 Working Harde...
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National Policing Lead For Economic Crime Annual Review 2015 - 16

Foreword

2

National Coordination

4

National Protect Strategy

6

Working Harder for Victims

8

Innovation in Policing

10

Working with Partners

14

Pursuing Criminals

18

Economic Crime Directorate

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Foreword Commander Christopher Greany

In 2015, for the first time, fraud and cyber crime were included in the Crime Survey of England and Wales. In this sample the public felt they had been victims of over 5 million frauds and 2.5 million cyber crimes. This represents more than the total of all other crimes the public identified in the same survey and demonstrates the extent of under-reporting. In the last year more than 230,000 crimes were reported to Action Fraud. We have examined the crimes reported to Action Fraud and are identifying more criminal networks and investigative leads than ever before, with an 18% increase in the number of crimes disseminated to police forces for action in 2015/16.

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I am committed to bringing the perpetrators of these crimes to justice. In the past year, City of London Police investigations resulted in 171 suspects being charged and 159 offenders convicted and sentenced to a combined total of 264 years imprisonment. There is still more we can do about this type of crime, of which I believe 80% could be prevented. We will continue to focus on education and prevention while working with industry to design out weaknesses in systems and processes. This year we established an Economic and Cyber Crime Prevention Centre to coordinate campaigns and a fraud prevention network that reaches across every single police force in England and Wales. Through this network, policing is reaching more people and businesses than ever before with prevention advice. We are also using research analytics to predict when and where crimes will occur and target advice more scientifically. Collaboration is key to our efforts this year. From the multi-agency campaigns group we established to align prevention messaging across the public and private sector landscape, to the joint fraud taskforce launched by the Home Secretary. We are bringing together government, law enforcement, regulators, business and academia, and working collectively to protect our communities from this pernicious threat. In the coming year, as the National Coordinator for Economic Crime, I will continue to identify new ways to improve how policing responds to fraud and cyber

crime. This includes transforming the national reporting service for fraud and cyber crime. We are rolling out new technology to make it easier to report to Action Fraud by offering a wider range of communication channels. Businesses will be able to make up to 1,000 reports at a time and victims will be able to track the progress of their crime via an online portal. Police forces will have access to real time information from the reporting service on threats, suspected offenders and victims in their force areas. This information will help them to support victims and deliver an intelligence-led response to local threats. My intention is to increase our cyber reporting capability to offer a 24/7 service to provide a single point of contact and better manage the law enforcement response in the critical early hours of a discovery. This will minimise loss of data and the impact of attacks on businesses, the wider economy and, in cases of terrorism, public safety. With my team, the principles of innovation, collaboration and victim service will remain at the forefront of the national agenda for policing economic crime. I would like to thank all partners who have worked with City of London Police to reduce the harm caused by economic crime to citizens, businesses and the economy and look forward to continued collaboration in the coming year.

Fraud in Numbers

11%

of adults say they have been targeted by fraudsters in the last year losing and average of £1,0161

Insolvency trade body R3 and ComRes

1

1 in 3 Number of organisations impacted by economic crime2 PWC Global Economic Crime Survey 2016

2

Fraud and cyber crimes

compared to other crimes

7.6 million

6.4 million

Source: Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW). October 2015.

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National Coordination In September 2015 we welcomed Commander Christopher Greany who took over the portfolio of National Coordinator for Economic Crime and identity crime and was appointed the National Police Chiefs’ Council lead for Cyber Protect. Over the coming year we will continue to work closely with police forces, identifying vulnerabilities in the police service response and strengthening its ability to reduce the harm caused from economic crime. With the new information technology we have purchased for the national fraud and cyber reporting service, this year police forces will have real time access to fraud and cyber intelligence for their area including details of threats, offenders and victims. This will enable police forces to develop a more dynamic and intelligence-led approach to policing economic crime.

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Understanding local vulnerabilities to cyber crime This year, with funding from the National Cyber Security Programme, we provided Police and Crime Commissioners and Chief Constables with an assessment of cyber crime in their jurisdiction. By analysing data held by the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau, NCA, Cert UK and GCHQ we articulated the threat to communities in each police force area in England and Wales. We also used this data to develop a cyber victimology report that identified vulnerabilities and victim demographics including the risks associated with using public WiFi, phishing, port scanning, malware deployment, banking trojans, and ransomware. Helping to strengthen economic crime and financial investigation capabilities internationally We undertook a review of economic crime investigation management in Pakistan following a request from the NCA, who are working alongside the Department for International Development and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. Our assessment and future training will help build capacity, and assist the authorities in combating economic crime.

Helping Crown Dependencies to strengthen economic crime and financial investigation capabilities We undertook a review of the economic crime and financial investigation capabilities of Guernsey Police Border Agency and Royal Gibraltar Police and proposed a series of recommendations to strengthen capacity and capability. We are supporting the implementation of these through training, secondments and continued strategic advice. A new and improved fraud investigation model Lancashire Constabulary’s Economic Crime Unit volunteered to pilot the effectiveness of the new fraud investigation model. The model is part of the policing fraud guide developed by our Economic Crime Academy which is available on the College of Policing Authorised Professional Practice website. During the pilot we worked with Lancashire Constabulary to develop an action plan for integrating the fraud investigation model into their investigative practice and identified methods for monitoring its effectiveness. This formed a useful precedent for forces looking to implement the model.

Tackling identity crime Identity crime is a key enabler to

Total readership of

fraud and other criminal activity.

7.6 million

In 2015 we launched a national campaign to raise awareness of and prevent identity crime. Not With My Name included advice on creating safe passwords, protecting internet devices, dealing with unsolicited phone calls and emails and disposing of personal information.

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million Twitter impressions

700,000 Facebook impressions

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National Protect Strategy Through engagement with forces we identified that economic and cyber crime protect activity was not always being prioritised and that messaging was inconsistent with each force having to create its own material. Subsequently, we developed and implemented a National Policing Protect Strategy, aligned to the National Policing Fraud Strategy. The cornerstone of this strategy was the establishment of a national coordination hub, the Economic and Cyber Crime Prevention Centre.

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Protect Yourself

The Economic and Cyber Crime Prevention Centre

Working with local forces we deliver workshops that provide an overview of the threat from fraud and cyber crime and advise on preventing victimisation. They are delivered to police officers with responsibility for engaging with members of the public, business owners and carers of vulnerable adults.

The Economic and Cyber Crime Prevention Centre (ECPC) aims to reduce the impact of economic crime on victims and empower individuals and businesses to protect themselves through intelligence-led and evidence based crime prevention activities. We achieve this by identifying systematic vulnerabilities that expose individuals and businesses to fraud and cyber crime. We raise national awareness of these vulnerabilities, and deliver simple and practical advice to mitigate the public’s risk to them.

We have also delivered a series of webcasts with partners that highlight current threats and trends which provided pragmatic protect advice. These events were delivered monthly and reached in excess of 500 businesses on each occasion.

The ECPC is supported by a national prevention network comprising representatives from economic crime departments, cyber crime units, crime prevention departments and communications teams in Regional Organised Crime Units and local police forces who assist in the design of national campaigns and dissemination of messages in local communities.

Urban Myths In October, we launched a campaign tackling fraud urban myths. The campaign was covered by the Guardian, Daily Mail, ITV, BBC Radio 4 and Multi-agency campaigns group We have led on the deconfliction of prevention activity across the public and private sectors through the creation of a multi-agency economic and cyber crime campaigns group. The group aims to maximise efficiency, ensure consistency and make best use of finite resources in delivering protect advice. A key principle of the group is to promote a partnership approach, with all organisations working together to achieve this.

The group includes law enforcement and public and private sector partners who meet regularly to share information on threats and pre-planned education and awareness campaigns. This makes advice consistent and allows partners to support and complement each other’s campaigns. Members include the National Crime Agency, British Telecom, Getsafeonline, Cifas, Financial Fraud Action UK, British Bankers Association, Crimestoppers, Age UK, the Charity Commission and a number of other organisations. Based on the planned activities of this group and intelligence held within the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau, we were able to identify prevention needs that were not being met and developed a number of campaigns to fill this gap.

BBC Five Live.

60

pieces of national and local media coverage

Online Shopping at Christmas This campaign was aimed at protecting the Don’t get conned out of Christmas

public against online shopping threats over the festive period. It was timed to coincide with busy online shopping days such as Black Friday and Cyber Monday, and was widely reported by national, regional and trade press. Coverage included the Daily Mirror, and the Daily Telegraph. www.getsafeonline.org

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pieces of regional media coverage 7

Working Harder For Victims Victims remain at the heart of our service. We provide advice to prevent individuals and businesses becoming victims, and in some instances repeat victims. We share intelligence, enabling banks and other organisations to freeze accounts, take down websites and disconnect phone lines linked to fraudulent activity. We are seizing criminal assets and returning this money to their victims. As part of the new service we are working with victim groups, especially Victim Support, on the transformation of the fraud and cyber reporting service. We will be capturing information to help police forces better understand the needs of victims in their area and identify who are at risk individuals. We are also working on a National Fraud Victim Strategy which will help police forces to deliver a consistent and responsive service to victims.

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Annual Review 2015 - 16

Easier processes for reporting fraud and cyber crime This year we took over 230,000 crime reports from victims and increased the volume of crimes sent to police forces with viable lines of enquiry by 18%. We are transforming Action Fraud to make it easier for victims and police forces to report fraud and cyber crime. This includes a multi-channel contact centre (telephone, website, web chat), improved processes for information capture that will provide more viable lines of inquiry and a bulk reporting capability for industry, which will take up to a 1,000 reports at a time. There will also be a personalised track my crime function so victims can monitor the progress of their report.

Supporting the unique needs of London’s economic crime victims In partnership with The Mayor’s Office for Policing And Crime (MOPAC), our Economic Crime Victim Care Unit provides a support service for victims in London. The unit undertakes a needs assessment and develops individual care plans that help victims to cope, recover and avoid repeat victimisation. Following the receipt of advice from our unit, 83% of victims said they had taken measures to reduce the risk of becoming repeat victims and none of the individuals reached have reported falling victim to fraud again. In the coming year we will be working closely with Police and Crime Commissioners across the country to share the learning from this model and develop a more consistent approach to supporting victims of economic crime across different force areas.

Supporting victims

Protecting consumer safety The Police Intellectual Property Crime Unit has been dismantling counterfeit operations that are putting public safety at risk. In February we arrested a man in Dorset as part of an investigation into the online sale of counterfeit airbags and seized around 100 suspected counterfeit airbags. The counterfeit airbags presented a clear danger to the public. As part of this enquiry we alerted 680 people believed to have purchased counterfeit and dangerous airbags and covers on eBay.

Following the seizure of a shipping container with what is believed to be more than 4,700 counterfeit versions of one of the UK’s most popular beauty brands, we launched the Wake Up Don’t Fake Up campaign in May. The campaign highlighted the dangers of buying and using counterfeit goods such as make-up, perfume, electrical hair stylers and sun-cream. Laboratory tests have shown counterfeit cosmetics contain poisonous chemicals including cyanide, arsenic, lead and even human urine, all of which can cause allergic reactions, and leave consumers with longer term health problems. The campaign was covered in more than 20 countries and there were 350 press articles, over 3,000 tweets and more than 16.7m timeline deliveries.

76% Overall satisfaction with the service provided by investigating officers

1,527 intelligence products and alerts disseminated to industry partners and the public

80% Satisfaction with Action Fraud

£5.4m Assets recovered and returned to 847 victims

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Innovation in Policing Innovation is essential to efficient and effective

Fraud and cyber prevention tool

delivery of our policing services.

In April 2015 we were awarded part funding from the Home Office Police Innovation Fund to create a web based Fraud Prevention Tool. This tool is the first of its kind and provides users with a personal risk assessment of their vulnerability to fraud and cyber crime, offering bespoke advice based on their level of susceptibility, as well as the potential consequences of not taking this protective advice. The basis of this work is an academic study on victim segmentation delivered by the Home Office’s Research, Information and Communications Unit, which employed statistical analysis to categorise individuals based on knowledge and vulnerability.

In addition to the innovations we have been developing over the past year, we successfully secured nearly £1m in part-funding from the Police Innovation Fund. In 2016 we will be commencing four exciting new projects: • capture, harvesting and sharing of false identity data collected by ID scanners in banks; • trial of new technology to improve the effectiveness and speed of digital evidence

Bringing private sector expertise into policing

analysis and disclosure; • a collaboration between law enforcement and private sector asset recovery firms to recover proceeds of economic crime; and • a national economic crime learning centre in partnership with academia

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The flexible use of special constables across the Economic Crime Directorate has led to specialist volunteers being deployed in a wide range of areas from the Fraud Teams to the Economic Crime Academy. Using specialist knowledge from cross-sectoral backgrounds has increased our technical cyber capabilities, business expertise and increased our capacity in the fight against economic and cyber crime.

The first national trial of restorative justice for victims and offenders of economic crime To date, restorative justice trials and studies have focused on physical and community based offending. In May 2015 we commenced the country’s first trial of the use of restorative justice within the boundaries of economic crime. In collaboration with the National Probation Service, the project aims to test the effectiveness of restorative justice to help victims of economic crime cope and recover, deliver efficiency savings and reduce reoffending. The trial is focused around insurance fraud offences, such as the crash for crash scam. It aims to help offenders understand the impact of their crime and give victims the chance to meet or communicate with those who have committed offences against them. The trial concluded in April 2016 followed by an academic evaluation. If the evidence demonstrates restorative justice is effective for economic crime, we will continue to use this approach and work with police forces to roll out this locally.

Economic Crime Academy We have continued to provide a range of training courses including fraud investigation and anti-bribery. This year we launched a new suite of courses to meet the growing demand in the cyber arena. With a majority of frauds using cyber enablers, whether phishing attempts or high level hacking, everyone involved in fraud prevention or investigation needs a strong understanding of cyber concepts and online investigation. We have built relationships with leading experts to bring these vital skills to financial crime and fraud investigators across policing, government and industry.

815 delegates from private, public and not for trade sectors trained (all courses)

99% of delegates satisfied with the content and delivery of courses

3,699

delegate days delivered

www.academy.cityoflondon.police.uk 11

Mobile banking and online payment technologies Operational Skynet is led by the Dedicated Card and Payment Crime Unit in partnership with the University of Bristol, Europol’s Cyber Crime Centre (EC3) and law enforcement agencies in Belgium, Romania, Finland, Hungary and France. The first stage of this project was academic research to map the law enforcement approach to cyber dependent crime in the payments sector, specifically card not present and online banking fraud. The study also identified emerging technologies having the greatest impact now and in the future.

Co-funded by the Prevention of and Fight against Crime Programme of the European Union

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Annual Review 2015 - 16

The research provides recommendations for how regulation, legislation, training and action by law enforcement, industry and consumers could be focused on the areas which will achieve the best prevention, detection and enforcement outcomes. The research also examines opportunities for stakeholders, particularly in law enforcement, the financial industry and government, to support initiatives with the potential to raise the bar for the investigation and disruption of cyber dependent crime, both nationally and internationally. The next phase of the project involves training for police officers in digital detection, investigation and prevention and a programme of two way exchanges and secondments between industry and law enforcement.

Tackling the business practices that enable fraud In 2015, Servcorp was fined £21,000 and ordered to pay £11,500 in costs after pleading guilty to seven offences under the London Local Authorities Act 2007 at the City of London Magistrates Court. The prosecution was brought following a joint investigation with City of London Trading Standards as part of Operation Broadway, and was the first of its kind. It focused on the actions of the company that through poor business practices enabled suspects currently under investigation to operate within the Square Mile. Operation Broadway is a multi-agency initiative to tackle investment fraudsters operating in the Square Mile and surrounding London boroughs. It has spread awareness throughout the mail forwarding, virtual and serviced office industry, of how criminals operate – typically by using prestigious addresses to run investment fraud operations in the City and key Metropolitan Police boroughs.

Operation Broadway Working in partnership with City of London Trading Standards, London Trading Standards, Scambusters, The Financial Conduct Authority, Insolvency Service, The National Fraud Intelligence Bureau, Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs and the Metropolitan Police Service to tackle and reduce investment fraud.

Op Broadway Down

reduced investment fraud within the City of London,

10% to date

and surrounding Metropolitan Police areas

Publications featuring Op Broadway

Bloomberg News

ITV News

ITV London

Daily Telegraph Financial Times Bloomberg News Radio 4 You and Yours

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Working With Partners We work with partners across the public, private and third sectors. By working together, we strengthen the UK’s defences against fraud and cyber crime and make it harder for offenders to reach and harm our communities. Our partners support us in the fight against fraud through funding, resources and expertise. The City of London Corporation also provides financial support. These funding streams enable us to deliver our national responsibilities.

Joint Fraud Taskforce

Secondments and exchanges

In February the Home Secretary launched the Joint Fraud Taskforce, a partnership between the Home Office, City of London Police, Financial Conduct Authority, National Crime Agency, Bank of England, Cifas and a number of banks. This is a new era of collaboration which will focus on five key areas:

We have a number of secondees from industry working with our units to tackle crime. In the Insurance Fraud Enforcement Department (IFED) we have had experts from Aviva and LV= who shared industry knowledge and supported criminal and asset recovery investigations and aided IFED’s development of its annual threat assessment.

• Understanding the threat – identification of intelligence gaps and vulnerabilities • Collective response - fast tracked intelligence sharing between banks and law enforcement and the creation of a new top ten most-wanted list of fraudsters • Victims and vulnerability – identification of victims and potential victims, including national roll out of intervention training for bank staff • Behaviour change - understanding why victims fall prey to fraud and helping to raise awareness of the steps they can take to protect themselves • Tackling systemic vulnerabilities - removing weak links in systems and processes which fraudsters exploit

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A barrister from the Red Lion Chambers recently completed a secondment with the Fraud Squad, Financial Investigation Unit and Police Intellectual Property Crime Unit. This provided a platform for an exchange of legal advice on prosecutions, the court processes and an examination of money laundering legislation. In 2015 we established an officer exchange programme with the District Attorney’s Office, New York. This was part of a wider programme of collaboration with US authorities which established joint protocols to enhance information exchange and improve capacity and capability for addressing economic crime and cyber crime.

Disrupting the digital enablers of economic crime We continue to work with partners to suspend websites, telephone accounts and bank accounts linked to criminal activity. In the past year we have sent nearly 150,000 suspension requests to partners in the UK and abroad. This is an efficient and effective means of preventing fraud.

3,889 UK domains

suspended in the period November 2014 to October 2015

95%

A key partner in this is Nominet, the UK website domain provider

of these suspensions were requested by City of London Police

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Working with academia The Economic Crime Academy is collaborating with a number of academic institutions including Coventry University London Campus. Our delegates will benefit from Coventry University’s trading floor and staff, learning how trading floors work, how fraud is committed and what to look out for when investigating this type of crime. Delegates can also practice giving evidence in a mock court room with university law students acting as the prosecution letting them experience a court room in a safe environment. The Academy will also provide lectures to university students.

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The Economic Crime Academy sits on the Technical and Executive Boards for the Counter Fraud Professional Accreditation Board (CFPAB). CFPAB aims to establish and maintain professional standards in professional training courses in the field of counter fraud. Three of the Academy’s courses have received awards from CFPAB and accreditation from the University of Portsmouth. The Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy (CIPFA) has awarded those who successfully complete the Economic Crime Academy’s Specialist Fraud Investigators Programme affiliate status. There is also a collaborative agreement underway for the Academy and CIPFA to deliver a joint Certified Programme in Counter Bribery and Corruption Studies.

We contributed to the research paper produced by Cardiff University and commissioned by the City of London Corporation on the Implications of Economic Cybercrime for Policing. The purpose of the research was to identify the key issues and complexities surrounding cyber-enabled and cyber-dependent economic crime. The report highlighted how businesses and individuals are affected by economic cybercrime and presented practical suggestions on how they may be supported within the context of the ongoing pursue, prevent, protect and prepare agendas. This report can be found at www.cityoflondon.gov.uk.

Founding partner and European lead for the Global Cyber Alliance We are a founder partner of the Global Cyber Alliance, an international cyber security initiative led by the District Attorney’s Office, New York and the Centre for Internet Security based in Albany, New York State. The alliance has been developed by cyber security specialists, and international law enforcement colleagues, to tackle the ever increasing global threats posed by cyber attacks. It seeks to increase collaboration to identify, combat and eradicate these threats. This joint working will enable information, intelligence and insight on cyber risks to be shared. Members will work in partnership to protect individuals and businesses from identified threats and technical specialists will engineer out identified cyber risks.

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Pursuing Criminals We continue to bring offenders to justice. With the geographical complexity of international criminal gangs and money trails, our work reaches across national and international borders. We are conducting numerous joint operations involving police and judicial authorities around the world. Here are just a few successful investigations from the past year.

Clamping down on insurance fraud

Payday lending fraud

The Insurance Fraud Enforcement Department (IFED) marked its fourth anniversary in January 2016 with more than 200 convictions and over 100 years of jail time for insurance fraudsters.

Between 2012 and 2013, 19,013 fraudulent loan applications, totalling £62m, were submitted to Wonga.com. Through an internal systems failure 10,375 applications were approved to the value of £3.8m.

This included the sentencing of eight criminals at Liverpool Crown Court who tried to claim thousands of pounds in insurance payments after inventing a car crash and the three year sentencing of a ghost broker convicted of selling fraudulent motor vehicle insurance policies which left his victims unknowingly uninsured. IFED’s 2015 annual national day of action targeted fraudulent household insurance claims and resulted in multiple arrests across the country. Convictions for money laundering and international corruption This year we concluded an eight year investigation into the two international aid experts from the Netherlands who were involved in stealing £27m from a United Nations contract that was meant to boost healthcare delivery to people in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. They spent the first tranche of the cash they stole on two flats and a house in London and were convicted of money laundering and corruption shortly after Prime Minister, David Cameron declared in a speech in Singapore that the London property market was not a place for foreigners “to stash your dodgy cash.”

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The applicants appeared to be victims of identity theft, who had no knowledge of the application being made using their details. The recipient account was that of a money mule, completely unconnected to the applicant. The money mules had one master current account with a large number of linked savings accounts. The funds derived from the fraudulent loan applications were paid directly into the linked savings accounts, then transferred to the master current account and disbursed. Eleven suspects were charged and convicted in relation to this matter. In total the criminals received 12 years in custodial time, 180 hours of community service, 2 years in suspended sentences and 340 hours unpaid work.

Successful outcomes

171

Suspects charged

159 Offenders convicted and sentenced to a combined total of 264 years

12 95

Organised crime groups disrupted

Offender cautions

13 Community resolutions 19

Catching criminals on TV

Operation Studley

This year the work of our investigators was highlighted in a new series of Fraud Squad with 2 million people per episode tuning in to watch.

We investigated a large scale attack on standalone ATMs. Malware was uploaded to over 50 ATM machines, which resulted in £1.5m being stolen. The National Crime Agency referred this to the London Regional Fraud Team who identified this was linked to attacks on ATMs internationally. Officers from the City of London Police, assisted by a multi-agency group, executed warrants at two addresses.

“ FraudSquadwasasgoodasapublicinformationfilm,

warninghoweasyitis,inthesedaysofrock-bottom interestrates,tobescammedbythelureofeasyprofits. Documentarieslikethisshouldberequiredviewing.



Christopher Stevens, Daily Mail

“ Thegoodnewsisthefraudstershavenowallbeen

convicted.What’smore,they’llalsohavetolivewith thehumiliatingknowledgethatmobile-phonefootageof themdrunkenlycavortingtoJessieJ’s‘PriceTag’has beenbroadcastonnationaltelevision. Ellen E Jones, The Independent



The fifth series of Claimed and Shamed was broadcast in June 2015. Viewers of the popular show, which has previously achieved record viewing figures for its timeslot, were given a front row seat as detectives from IFED executed warrants, arrested suspects and seized evidence. Claimed and Shamed has helped to increase the number of suspected insurance frauds reported to the Insurance Fraud Bureau’s Cheatline.

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Two suspects were arrested, one of whom pleaded guilty to conspiracy to defraud and received a five year prison sentence. Another male was intercepted and sentenced in January 2016 to seven years imprisonment. Investment fraud A company operating from the iconic Tower 42 was discovered, in January 2012, to be selling bogus investments in carbon credits and rare earth metals. The company functioned as a typical boiler room with a number of staff cold-calling potential victims to try and sell them investment opportunities.

One victim, who met the fraudster on several occasions, lost more than £150,000 to the fraud whilst another victim was persuaded to invest almost £45,000, money that was never seen again. Bank statements collected by investigating officers revealed that almost £1m of victims’ money was paid into the company account, £350,000 of which was quickly transferred into a personal account and a further £250,000 was spent on business expenses. The rest of the funds went on a car, expensive holidays and a children’s nursery. Officers found no evidence that any of the victims’ money was actually put into an investment scheme. The fraudster, who made nearly £1m, was sentenced to 2.5 years in prison.

Types of fraud offences 2015 Percentage increase from 2014

+8%

+55%

Banking and credit industry fraud

Mandate fraud

+23%

+53%

Insurance fraud

All charity fraud

+17%

+18%

Pension fraud

Corporate fraud

Source: Action Fraud, Cifas and Financial Fraud Action UK, National Fraud Intelligence Bureau

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Economic Crime Directorate

National Coordinator for Economic Crime Commander Christopher Greany [email protected]

Head of Economic Crime Directorate Detective Chief Superintendent Dave Clark [email protected]

Operations

Economic Crime Academy

National Coordination Office

Detective Superintendent Maria Woodall

Kathy Hearn

Detective Superintendent Alan Gooden

[email protected]

[email protected]

National Fraud and Cyber Reporting Centre NFIB Detective Superintendent Matthew Bradford [email protected]

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Action Fraud Pauline Smith [email protected]

[email protected]

Strategic Delivery Unit

Global Cyber Alliance

Alix Newbold

John Unsworth

[email protected]

[email protected]

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www.cityoflondon.police.uk www.twitter.com/CityPoliceFraud

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