What is action fraud for?

Elsa08

I don't know how to address this email... 

Anyway let's do in the formal way..

Dear Sirs,

Has anyone an idea what the Action Fraud website is it for? I mean, as good citizen (not saying perfect), I reported at least 2 crimes in the past 10 years on me (basically the others were committing something wrong). 

Both times, they are saying something like this last email:

"

I am sorry to hear you have been a victim of crime. Thank you for taking the time to report to Action Fraud. Your report has been sent to the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau (NFIB) for review.

Experts at the NFIB examine the information you provide. Where possible, the information is also matched against other available data in order to enrich and corroborate the details of the fraud. The NFIB assess whether there are viable lines of enquiry that would enable a law enforcement body, such as the police service, to investigate.

On this occasion, based on the information currently available, it has not been possible to identify a line of enquiry which a law enforcement organisation in the United Kingdom could pursue.

Registered users of our service have the opportunity to update their report, so if you have additional information about your crime which you believe could change the assessment, please log in to your account and submit that information. We continuously assess the content of individual and linked crime reports; in the event that a line of enquiry is identified we will provide you with an update.

Please be assured that by contacting us you are giving the police vital information that they need to protect you and others. The information you have provided may be used to disrupt criminal activity and inform prevention advice and campaigns.

If you have any queries regarding this letter please visit www.actionfraud.police.uk/FAQ. If you would like more information on how to protect yourself from fraud and cyber crime, please see the guidance at www.actionfraud.police.uk/support_for_you.

Thank you for taking the time to report and helping us to make the UK a safer place.

We value your feedback, please visit this link and complete the survey:
[Omitted]

Yours sincerely,

Head of NFIB "

Could anyone help me?

So people who scammed me are free to scam anyone elses?? If police think that they can't pursue them they will never do a thing such as shutting down their website?

So have I been so stupid to cry for the wolf when wolf was not there? 

Really, I need to understand where I am standing on.

Regards

Elisa 

eskbanker

https://www.actionfraud.police.uk/what-is-action-fraud (note the final two sentences in particular):

We provide a central point of contact for information about fraud and financially motivated internet crime. People are scammed, ripped off or conned everyday and we want this to stop.

The service is run by the City of London Police working alongside the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau (NFIB) who are responsible for assessment of the reports and to ensure that your fraud reports reach the right place. The City of London Police is the national policing lead for economic crime.

Report fraud and cyber crime crime

You can report fraud or cyber crime using our online reporting service any time of the day or night; the service enables you to both report a fraud and find help and support. We also provide help and advice over the phone through the Action Fraud contact centre. You can talk to our fraud and cybercrime specialists by calling 0300 123 2040.

When you report to us you will receive a police crime reference number. Reports taken are passed to the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau. Action Fraud does not investigate the cases and cannot advise you on the progress of a case.

born_again

Well it all depends on what sort of crime you are reporting.
What is more frustrating to me is the fact that the Met police (and some other forces) direct people to action fraud to report crimes even when they should be dealing with it. Just so they can fudge their figures.
Talking about people that have had cards/handbags stolen at atm's or in bars. As these are straight theft and should be dealt with by the local police.

jimi_man

As stated above, Action Fraud are a central reporting point - a go-between. Since fraud is a quite a complex and specialist subject, often the first contact part of the police are not best placed to take the report, so that when you make a report to Action Fraud then the staff there are experienced in fraud and better placed to assist/direct. But as also stated they don't investigate. They apply criteria as to whether it should be investigated (usually but not limited to - whether there are lines of enquiry to follow up) and if so they send it out to the relevant police area where it's recorded as a crime and investigated, the same as other crimes.  

Practically speaking, further criteria is applied by the police and is based around proportionality and cost effectiveness, vulnerability of the victim, seriousness of the offence amongst others. 

It's not an ideal situation and in the vast majority of cases, nothing happens. Fraud, as I said earlier, is complex, extremely resource intensive and time consuming, often involves international jurisdictions and is often very difficult to investigate and prosecute. The blunt truth is that the police do not have the resources to be able to do this widely and until more resources are spent on it then it's going to continue in this manner. 

Prevention is far better than relying on detection.

Speedbird676

Consider yourself lucky. I never even got a response after submitting a report.

tacpot12

They are basically there to gather data on the incidence of fraud. The data is feed to organisations that can take action, but note that they will not take action against one fraud. The organisations that receive the data deal with organised crime, so they have no interest in dealing with a fraud that had been perpetrated by an individual against another individual as a one-off crime. The police should deal with such one-off crimes as a crime and investigate it, but of course they are under resourced, so will try to persuade you that the only option is to report to Action Fraud. You should complain to the Police force and to the Crime Commissioner for your area if you are the victim of a one-off fraud that the police will not investigate.