Police Report Closed, still safe from Fraud??

Jay83

Sorry if im in the wrong place, dont know where to ask this question.

I had my purse pickpocketed from my bag the other day and i cancelled all my cards straight away and reported it to the police.

The police lady told me that because i reported it would mean that the bank would know that i was not responsible for any strange activity on my account.

I got a letter from the police today saying that there wasnt much they can do and that its basically closed. But what does that mean? Am i still safe from fraud?

Olipro

it means you're not going to get your purse back.

assuming you didn't forget to cancel any cards, you are safe.

Jay83

Thank you for your reply.

LeeSouthEast

Depending on the contents, it might be worth registering for credit monitoring for the next few months, just in case of any ID fraud.

Paul_Herring

Jay83 wrote: »

I got a letter from the police today saying that there wasnt much they can do and that its basically closed. But what does that mean?

It means that, as usual, the police are (and will) refuse to get involved with any sort of fraud involving personal bank accounts.

Am i still safe from fraud?

If you've canceled all the cards with the relevant banks, and you didn't have any other items of identification stolen, you're probably as safe as you were before it was stolen, but for peace of mind you may want to take up Lee's suggestion.

hippey

Pick pocket is a completely different offence from fraud.

If you reported the theft of your purse then that is what the police will investigate, in theory obtain CCTV from the location and follow up any evidence although if you don't know exactly where it was taken it's impossible to solve really.

Your belongings are out there somewhere and any fraud could still take place but the police can not stop that unless they know about it. Someone has already mentioned taking steps to mitigate any future issues and this is worth doing.

Paul_Herring

hippey wrote:

any fraud could still take place but the police can not stop that unless they know about it.

My point being that even if the police were made aware of it, there's very little that they'd actually do about it. You could go in, give them the name and address of the (alleged) fraudster and they'd do nothing.

The police simply refuse to get involved with fraud at this level. And the banks, for whatever reason, prefer to deal with it 'in house.'

Ever wonder why the crime rates are supposedly so low these days?

Jay83

I also had my driving license and Ni card in there. I know i was being stupid for carrying them around with me.

I intend to register for experian to keep an eye on things but cant do until i have a debit card.

When i rung up and went into the branches i told them what had happened and they told me they had cancelled my cards and resending new ones out. Someone suggested i should close my accounts and open new ones, should they have suggested this to me when i went or rang in?

Olipro

personally, I think experian is a rip-off, annualcreditreport.co.uk is far cheaper.

Paul_Herring

Olipro wrote: »

personally, I think experian is a rip-off, annualcreditreport.co.uk is far cheaper.

Um, all the credit reporting bureaux are required to make available £2 statutory reports.

And annualcreditreport's data is useless - they (used to) update the free report once a year[1], and IIRC, the last time I bothered using them, the vast majority of their data was obtained from only one of the main credit agencies (Call Credit I think.)

Add the fact I know[2] they sell on (or at least allowed to be compromised) the email addresses they obtain I'd recommend that no-one use them.

In this particular instance you appear to get what you pay for.

[1] I've just looked up my report on there -

• my Vodafone contract which I've had for at least 20 years, and still have, has a last entry of Jan '08(!) and nothing since.
• The "current" address they hold for me is over 2 years out of date.
• They hold no data for any current credit cards, despite my having an Egg card for over 5 years - all the cards they do have have been marked as Closed (including an Egg card amusingly enough - "closed in '06.")

If Experian and Equifax can get (e.g.) my address right within 3 months of my changing it, it makes you wonder what ACR are actually doing.

[2] I use a unique email address for each company I'm required to register an address with. The first one I gave to ACR got spammed. ACR denied selling it of course, but somehow that unguessable email address that they alone had access to got into the hands of spammers.

olly300

Jay83 wrote: »

I also had my driving license and Ni card in there. I know i was being stupid for carrying them around with me.

Register with CIFAS - http://www.cifas.org.uk/default.asp?edit_id=808-85

It would be better than registering with Experian as if someone tries to get a contract mobile phone with your driving license, Experian will notify you after it happens but CIFAS will stop it happening in the first place.