2024 Publications

Crimestoppers launched a 4 week Romance Fraud campaign targeting Birmingham and Nottinghamshire in the Midlands, with the aim of raising awareness about the increasing prevalence of online dating scams. The campaign, one of the Midlands Fraud Forum's initiatives, focused on educating the public about the tactics used by fraudsters, such as building emotional connections in order to manipulate victims into sending money or personal information.

Key elements of the activity included social media outreach, informative leaflets, and events to discuss potential warning signs and protective measures. The campaign emphasised the importance of reporting suspicious activity and encouraged those who felt they had been scammed to get support. Overall, the initiative sought to empower individuals to recognise and avoid romance scams, thereby reducing financial losses and emotional distress in the community.

OPEN REPORT

A groundbreaking report by Perpetuity Research and the Centre for Cybercrime and Economic Crime at the University of Portsmouth has uncovered a critical oversight in the fight against economic crime. Despite soaring levels of these offences, police forces are not fully utilising the vast resources and expertise available in the private and not-for-profit sectors. Even with significant underreporting, the volume of offences has placed a strain on police resources and this has served to undermine the ability of law enforcement to respond effectively. Meanwhile, parts of the private and not-for profit sectors dedicate significant resources to combatting economic crime. Banks and insurance companies for example, employ thousands of staff in antifraud roles. This expertise is largely invisible to the police, representing a massive, wasted opportunity.

OPEN REPORT

A warning has been made over the risks of food fraud which is costing the UK up to £2 billion per year after Food Standards Scotland and the Food Standard Agency published their latest Food Crime Strategic Assessment. Although the report found that the majority of food in the UK is safe and authentic, they do have concerns over the threat of food crime. Blame has largely been placed on huge recent geopolitical events around the world which have caused disruption in the food chain and left it open to fraud. Those events, such as the Covid-19 pandemic, Russian’s invasion of Ukraine and Israel’s attacks on Palestine, have increased the risk of food crime.

Document fraud is observed as a common thread through many aspects of food crime, being utilised for example to outwardly legitimise illicit products resulting from thefts, unlawful processes or those which are being sold at a premium price after adulteration or substitution with substandard commodities.

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We saw some small reductions in the amount stolen through payment fraud in 2023, but with losses of nearly £1.2 billion it remains a major problem and threat to the UK.

The damage this crime does is huge. The organised criminals and other threat actors who perpetrate these awful crimes cause serious harm to individuals, to society and to our country.

Fraud in all its forms continues to represent over 40 per cent of reported crime. That is the scale of the challenge we continue to face.

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OPEN BULLETIN

Fraud is at epidemic levels in the UK, and it is becoming increasingly more organised and sophisticated. The picture is no different amongst organisations involved in recruitment.

The Better Hiring Institute and its collaborators have defined Hiring Fraud as any fraud committed during the hiring process; this may be committed by an individual against an organisation, or committed by an entity against a work seeker.

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Driven through the work of the Counter Fraud Function, everyone involved in public services must play their part in transforming the way the public sector is protected from fraud. From helping departments to manage fraud risks, to taking effective action and pursuing fraudsters where fraud does occur, we as government will continue to collectively fight fraud against the public purse.

The Counter Fraud Functional Strategy for 2024-2027 should drive efforts and set out where the Function will go but noticeably the strategy is currently underwhelming, has no measurable objectives, with few ideas on how fraud can actually be reduced and there are no commitments to spending!

Open Report Here

On 18 March 2024, the Sentencing Council published a response to the third annual consultation on miscellaneous amendments to sentencing guidelines, and made changes to a number of the sentencing guidelines. Relevant to MFF members, the Council was made aware of a potential difficulty in sentencing cases where there is little or no financial harm but a high level of non-financial impact on the victim. As a result the fraud guideline will be amended from 1 April 2024 to give increased recognition to the impact on victims in circumstances where there is no or limited financial loss with the wording: "Serious detrimental effect on the victim whether financial or otherwise (including emotional and psychological harm)".

Open response here

OPEN BULLETIN