Posts Tagged fraud
Even More About Fraud
Posted by murray in Latest News on August 19th, 2009
Okay, so I have a bee in my bonnet about this. Well, so should you after this stunning missive plonked on my desk from some friendly Detective at Bow Street Nick.
“The fraud allegation reported has been recorded as a crime on Tower Hamlets Borough (Oh! Good!). Unfortunately, due to the current Borough policy… blah, blah, … will not be investigated”
And again:
“… Police Service has finite resources (translation: money) .. only right that these resources are directed to crimes that are solveable…”
So, a reported crime, where you give the name, address, the evidence, more eveidence (indeed more than you can shake a stick at) is not solveable – indeed PC Plod is not going to even send someone around to knock on the door of someone who has nicked the best part of £4,000 for a few days work – Oh! And it’s against the Borough policy.
So what crimes, pray, are with policy? How much can one nick before Inspector Plod comes a-calling? Naturally, I have asked Chief Superintendent Blindeye to let me have a note of, er, “permissable crime”. Certainly, The London Borough of Tower Hamlets is clearly the place to be for credit card fraud!
More About Fraud….
Posted by murray in Latest News on August 13th, 2009
Interesting. Try a search for fraud and scams and you will find plenty about those perpetrated by various outfits; but nothing about those perpetrated by individuals on firms.
Following my last tirade, I did receive a response from Sandra Quinn, Director of Communications, UK Payment Administration – which is, I suppose, a sort of club to which all these merchant service types belong to. From this, it is clear that I am not the only one getting a bit cheesed off by the apparent lack of pro-active action against fraudsters. I am told that banks do build up a database of these fraudsters, such data is shared with the Old Bill and that they are really after getting at the big boys. Naturally (though I find this hard to swallow as it smacks a bit of a cop-out (no pun intended)) I am also told that Plod and such are not willing to share the details of what they are actually doing. Fraud (apparently) is not a priority the Police feel they need to follow up on. They are, after all, far too busy counting the cash from their speed cameras.
Well, that’s not good enough. Going for the big profile fraudsters is all well and good but in the meanwhile there are a lot of little ones who are laughing in the face of honest traders, nicking a few quid here, a few quid there and generally having a great time – as long as they stay small – medium sized, even – there is positively no danger of the local constable heave-ho-ing into sight and carting them off to chokey.
Do not worry, because Her Majesty’s Grateful Government has set up the National Fraud Authority which has, er… meetings about fraud, “puts its weight” behind things, has some more meetings (but out in the regions) and, no doubt, “engages with the stakeholders” as well. In other words about as much help as a road hump on the M25.
There is enough focus, legislation and action on firms and traders ripping off customers – there is virtually no focus on customers ripping off firms. When was the last time “Watchdog” had a piece on how these people get millions of pounds of free goods off honest traders? Nope, I can’t think of one either.
So what would be helpful? Firstly, that someone in the local Constabulary recognises this problem and takes possession of it. We need someone who we can go to – traders need a active feed into the sharing of information by the Merchants Services and the Police, Secondly, they could also do with a list of those people whom one may wish to choose not to do business with (after all, insurance companies share info about postcodes). Not, I might stress, a blacklist, but just a list of those whom one may wish to avoid. Thirdly, traders need to see something is being done on the ground, not just in the stratosphere of organised crime. That means a bit more than merchants service types sending round the odd missive about watching out for customers wearing stripy shirts, with a black handkerchief tied around their eyes and carrying a bag marked “swag”.
Failing that, I may just as well get some credit card details from somewhere and start ordering…..
Fraud – How to get rich!
Posted by murray in Latest News on August 5th, 2009
Lot of talk about fraud and how horrible it is and how people get affected by it etc., etc. Lots of missives from the banks to merchants about checking this and checking that. Lots of chat about various scams going on and how people are making off with everyone’s money etc., etc., etc….
And it will not stop. The reason it will not stop is because nobody is actually doing anything about it. True enough, the powers that be will warn you about it and suggest ways of not being caught, what to look for and so on – but nobody is actually doing anything about it.
For example, I picked up a fraudulent transaction going through the website. This was a customer trying to defraud a retailer (Yes, it does happen). I collected all the information and evidence and because there was enough time, duly reported the facts of the matter to the Police, thinking that someone may like to go and bring the fraudster to justice. A very nice, (highly trained to be) concerned-sounding sort of person logged all the information, thanked me for reporting the matter and then…. well, and then nothing. Rather like going to the Doctor and then being told “Now, here’s two aspirin” – in other words, naff off.
The most irritating bit, was that the fraudster had the card details, name and address of a real live person. I could not contact that real live person, so I thought that I would contact my merchant service provider and ask them to get hold of the person and let them know that they had a problem. Nope, not interested. My provider has one of those sub-continent service centres, which means that you are talking to a highly trained parrott – my suggestion did not fit the call flow-chart and given that these places have all the initiative of road hump – the request was not understood and so fell on deaf ears. They were not going to lift a finger because they did not know which bank to contact – Really? So how come they can do a name and address check when it comes to authorisation?
Merchant providers are not actually interested in catching these villains – they are not really interested in the welfare of their cardholders and certainly not the welfare of their merchants. Sure (as I said) they will give you lots of “advice” on how to “protect” yourself – indeed, the merchant service providers “club” dish it out by the bucketful – but the reason why they do so is simply that it costs an arm and a leg in administration costs sorting the mess out. So, if they can cut the administration costs, so much the better. Otherwise, merchant service providers are more than happy – if the cardholder gets diddled, they simply charge the merchant back and if the cardholder takes money that he or she says they didn’t take, then MP’s simply say “rubbish, prove it” – leaving the cardholder with a stonk of an uphill battle trying to prove that he (or she) was in Land’s End at 19:00 on the 25th and not in Aberdeen.
Actually catch the fraudster – even when there are enough facts, is to much like hard (and costly) work – so it gets left to the hard pressed Constabulary who, as we know, “do not have the resources” (i.e. money) to send a couple of blokes round to feel someone’s collar.
So fraud is alive and well and will remain so as long as fraudsters can keep on going in the sure and certain knowledge that there is and always will be, one born every minute. They know that Banks and other institutions will keep on trying to “educate” people – but above all, they also know that no matter how many times they try it on, the magic words “lack of resources” will mean that no-one will coming knocking on their door.
