New report calls for overhaul of fraud policing

Half (51 per cent) of those surveyed who have worked in UK law enforcement believe police officers do not have the skills to investigate fraud while the overwhelming majority (88 per cent) think a lack of resources is preventing action.

The findings from a major new report by the independent policing think-tank, The Police Foundation, in partnership with Virgin Media O2, follow months of extensive research and in-depth interviews with police experts.

The report, titled ‘A ‘Victimless’ Crime? Why fraud policing needs a re-design’, reveals a policing system unable to tackle organised criminal gangs behind 43 per cent of all UK crime.

Official statistics released last month found fraud skyrocketed to 4.1 million cases last year – up 33 per cent from 2023. Estimated to cost £6.8 billion each year, the vast majority of Brits (69 per cent) have been targeted by scammers or fraudsters, with a quarter saying they’ve been targeted at least weekly in the past year.

Despite this, almost all perpetrators evade justice. Only 3,641 fraud cases resulted in a charge, a 10 per cent reduction year on year according to the latest Home Office data.

Launching the report at an event in central London, The Police Foundation exposed systemic issues with fraud policing, describing the current structure as “built for a different era”, with the police unable to keep pace with the scale of that change owing to a lack of resources, skills and a predominantly local response to a cross-border crime.

The report argues that the UK’s fragmented response – with most case investigated by the 43 local forces in England and Wales – is not fit for purpose.

Many police staff surveyed by YouGov and Virgin Media O2 believe fraud is a low priority for the police (41 per cent); more than a third (37 per cent) are not clear which agency should be investigating fraud cases; and two-thirds (67 per cent) say businesses were more responsible for tackling fraud than the police or individuals.

Freedom of Information requests obtained by Virgin Media O2 last year revealed only six per cent of reports to Action Fraud, the national fraud and cybercrime reporting centre, were passed to police forces for investigation in the 2023/24 financial year. In three forces, no officers were dedicated to investigating fraud, highlighting how chronic under-resourcing limits the police’s ability to act.

With government set to publish a new, expanded fraud strategy later this year, The Police Foundation is calling for urgent structural reforms and:

• Create a new national Crime Prevention Agency charged with taking the national and international action necessary to prevent fraud and cybercrime;
• Redefine the roles of local and regional police in fraud policing, including creating a stronger network of Regional Economic Crime Hubs;
• Establish a new National Anti-Fraud Data centre and legally require private companies to share relevant data; and
• Ringfence funding for fraud policing and launch a national strategy to recruit and upskill investigators.

Michael Skidmore, head of Serious Crime Research at The Police Foundation, said: “Over several years, The Police Foundation has undertaken an extensive programme of research on fraud and the policing response to it. With support from Virgin Media O2, we’ve been able to bring this right up to date by consulting senior experts and surveying police professionals.

What this reveals is a fundamental mismatch. Fraud is a high-volume, harmful crime, often perpetrated online by sophisticated networks that operate across police force and international borders.

“In comparison, our policing response is under-resourced, under-skilled and locked into a reactive, geographically bounded policing model developed to tackle the local crime problems of the 1960s.

“We are calling for a wholesale shift to a prevention-focussed response. We need a new national lead body with a ringfenced budget and local and regional tasking powers, greater private sector collaboration and an uplift in skills. The current model is simply unsustainable, given the scale, harm and sophistication of the fraud challenge we face today.”

Murray Mackenzie, director of Fraud Prevention at Virgin Media O2, said: “At Virgin Media O2, we’re committed to fighting fraud, having invested millions in our defences and blocked more than £250 million transactions in a single year. But with overall fraud prosecutions falling despite a 33 per cent jump in cases last year, the UK is failing to effectively tackle fraud, and criminals are stealing with no real prospect of ever facing justice.

“The police recognise the deeply-rooted systemic barriers to tackling fraud – nine in ten agree that despite their best efforts, officers lack the tools and resources needed to fight back. Victims are being left to fend for themselves.

“We urge the Government to seize this opportunity to reform and show that it won’t allow fraud to become a crime without consequence.”

Telecoms companies are frequently targeted by fraudsters attempting to steal high value phones or access customer data which they then use to perpetrate further fraud elsewhere. In response, Virgin Media O2 has invested millions in counter fraud measures and interventions that stopped customers becoming victims of fraud.

In recent years, the company blocked a suspected fraud transaction every two minutes, which would have been cumulatively worth more than £250 million a year. Following investment in new AI tools, O2 now flags more than 50 million suspected scam calls to customers every month and blocked 168 million scam texts in the past two years.

Last year the telecommunications company took the unprecedented step of calling on the Government to make tackling fraud a priority and create a single specialised national body to handle all instances of fraud after coming under near-constant attack from fraudsters.

It warned that without change to give police forces enough power and resources to counter professional gangs, fraudsters would continue to commit crime without consequence costing the UK billions of pounds and causing victims emotional harm that could last a lifetime.