Tuesday, 3 December 2013

A fraud hotline service that was set up in 2010 to collect details of fraudsters and online scams from around the country is being handed over to City of London police after claims that thousands of victims and crimes were being ignored.

Minsters will announce this week that the system will be reformed and that the quango in charge of Action Fraud will be broken up. The decision has come after pressure from the media to make changes to the current system.

The hotline was set up in 2010 to collect details of fraudsters and online scams from around the country, taking the work out of the hands of local police forces and 999 operators. But it has been beset by problems.

Victims have complained that despite being ripped off they were given no support by the staff at the Action Fraud’s privately run call centre.

Concerns were reported earlier this year from victims that they were being denied justice by 'disinterested' call centre staff. In July and IT fault meant that 2,490 cases were ignored.

And fewer than half of the 302,526 reports the hotline received in 2012-13 were passed to police for investigation, meaning that conmen escaped justice while victims were left out of pocket.

 The Police and Crime Commissioner for Dorset, Martyn Underhill, also confronted Ministers over the systems failings earlier this year and stated saying, ‘I welcome this change as long as victim care is looked at and improved.’