Protect your business from fraud with the right measures midweekherald.co.uk - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from midweekherald.co.uk Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Fraud victim Catriona Oliphant is one of the lucky ones. Through steely determination – and help from The Mail on Sunday – she recently managed to get her bank to reimburse £239,000 scammed from her account.
But Catriona, a highly-regarded lawyer, was not content. Outraged by the complacency shown by Action Fraud – a national hub for reporting fraud – over investigating her case she vowed to take matters into her own hands. Last week, she decided to track down the scammers with The Mail on Sunday alongside her.
Although Catriona was thwarted at the last moment by a desperate plea from Action Fraud not to interfere in an ongoing investigation – a request we felt we could not ignore – the ease with which we tracked down those involved in the scam raises serious questions over Action Fraud s willingness and ability to tackle the rising tide of financial crime.
Why can t Action Fraud identify those involved in scams? dailymail.co.uk - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from dailymail.co.uk Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
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Fraud is going uninvestigated by police who are hiding behind the veil of the Action Fraud national crime reporting agency.
In his paper published this week in
Policing, Professor Mark Button, director of the Centre for Counter Fraud Studies at the University of Portsmouth argues that, Action Fraud, which has been widely derided, has become a useful veil from which the police can hide their inadequate response.
Figures from Action Fraud, the arm of the police responsible for recording scams and fraud, show that between 2019 and 2020, over 800,000 people reported being a victim of fraud, with £2.3bn finding its way into criminal hands. However, Professor Button calculated just 0.6 per cent of police officers are dedicated to investigating fraud.
A Ponzi scheme for the modern era
4 Hrs Ago
In this August 2020 file photo, a sign attached to a pole on the Brian Lara Promenade, Port of Spain, promises easy money while you relax at home. - SUREASH CHOLAI
MATT WARNER, journalist
November 2020 was the 100-year anniversary of the imprisonment of Charles Ponzi – infamous creator of the fraudulent scheme to which he gave his name. Exactly a century later, Gutemberg Dos Santos, founder of AirBit Club, a cryptocurrency mining and trading company, was charged in the US with various offences relating to an alleged international investment scam , which, as described by the prosecutor, has all the hallmarks of a Ponzi scheme.