The London Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime (MOPAC) has launched a new 48-page Business Crime Strategy designed specifically to help protect London-based companies from acts of criminality.
The crime threat in the UK is changing. Criminals are becoming more sophisticated and more crime has moved off the streets and into the online world. MOPAC’s Business Crime Strategy – endorsed by the Metropolitan Police Service, the National Crime Agency and the City of London Police – outlines how each provider will build their capability to tackle fraud and economic crimes.
This is the first strategy of its kind. It represents a ‘Call to Arms’ for the police, businesses, local authorities and others to work together to build confidence and prevent and cut business crime. More than this, it sets out clear, deliverable plans to achieve end goals, with commitments from MOPAC and law enforcement alongside a challenge to businesses themselves.
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On the Business Crime Strategy, Stephen Head (Commander and National Police Co-ordinator for Economic Crime at the City of London Police) said: “The threat from fraud, particularly cyber-enabled fraud, continues to grow and every section of society is now at risk. It’s therefore increasingly important that the police and businesses work even more closely together to counter this threat. The collaborative approach advocated by MOPAC and highlighted in this strategy is absolutely right if we’re to be successful in continuing to meet this challenge.”
He continued: “As the National Policing Lead for Fraud, the City of London Police will continue to work with MOPAC and others to ensure that London remains one of the safest and most business-friendly cities in the world, with a policing approach that’s fit and appropriate for tackling 21st Century crimes.”
Affording context to the Business Crime Strategy
Further to this, the following information is designed to give context to information included in the Business Crime Strategy…
Since taking responsibility for Action Fraud in April this year, the City of London Police has instigated a programme of work designed to offer an enhanced service for the victims of fraud and cyber crime. Since the end of May 2014, all victims who report to Action Fraud now receive a written update on the status of their report after 28 days, if not before. Action Fraud also provides expert advice and guidance to concerned individuals or businesses.
Action Fraud and the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau (NFIB), hosted and run by the City of London Police, is funded by Government to receive reports of fraud and cyber crimes from individuals, SMEs and large corporations. Outside Action Fraud, it also accepts reports of business fraud through a number of organisations including the UK Payments Council and CIFAS.
The combined Action Fraud and NFIB services do not investigate reported crimes of itself. The NFIB uses cutting-edge technology to automatically identify links between crimes and, in quick time, develops and disseminates crime packages for investigation by UK law enforcement agencies. It also proactively disrupts criminality and enriches the UK fraud and cyber threat picture.
During the 2013-2014 financial year, of the totality of fraud and cyber crimes reported into the NFIB no less than 53,556 packages were identified as having viable lines of enquiry and disseminated to UK law enforcement for investigation or intelligence purposes. In the same time period, some 118,000 additional crimes were targeted for disruption while over 805 alerts were disseminated for prevention purposes.
As the MOPAC Business Crime Strategy demonstrates, CIFAS reports on fraud against businesses. These reports often add value to the thousands of Action Fraud packages disseminated for investigation by UK law enforcement.
It’s important to note that police forces accept crimes for investigation based on the availability of viable lines of enquiry. In the past, forces have prioritised Action Fraud reports over CIFAS because of the quality of the data. However, the NFIB is working with forces and CIFAS to improve the quality of all data to create more opportunities for UK law enforcement to accept and investigate reports.
Informing Government and UK law enforcement
Action Fraud and the NFIB use the large number of reported fraud and cyber crimes to help inform Government and UK law enforcement about the scale of the threat that exists at a local, regional and national level in order to help drive their response to the benefit of victims. This has resulted in some police forces committing considerable additional resources to address these emerging threats.
For example, the Metropolitan Police Service is adding further capability to accept fraud and cyber crime packages for investigation which will then provide an enhanced service to victims.
The City of London Police proactively aims to improve the policing response to fraud and cyber crime and ensure that all business victims receive an efficient and effective service, particularly as reporting continues to increase. For instance, the force is creating a system whereby businesses can easily report multiple instances of fraud and cyber crime to Action Fraud.
Additionally, the force plays host to a number of fraud teams and specialist units that service business victims of fraud and cyber crime including the insurance industry, the credit and payment industry and intellectual property rights holders.
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