Close liaison and sharing of information between banks, police and retailers is key to successfully fighting plastic card fraud.
It is more important than ever that the main players continue to present a unified front that gives criminals less scope to overcome fraud prevention initiatives. These bodies can help each other identify new prevention opportunities to work together and beat fraud.
Organised criminals are a major contributor to the rise in card fraud as they often see it as a comparatively low-risk way of raising revenue that can later be used to fund more violent crime. Criminals involved with offences like drug trafficking, kidnapping, smuggling and terrorism are often also involved in card crime.
Home Office encouragement
Partnership amongst banks, police and retailers has become increasingly important in the last decade, following Home Office encouragement that these three industries work together to beat the rapidly rising card fraud figures seen in the early 1990s.
Arising out of the work with the Home Office a website has been launched that is a co-branded initiative between Card Watch and the Home Office to provide consumers with practical advice on how to protect themselves from being a victim of ID fraud. To view this site go to
www.identitytheft.org.uk
Dedicated Cheque and Plastic Crime Unit (DCPCU)
The DCPCU investigates a variety of fraud types including:
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Counterfeiting
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Cash machine fraud
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Mail non-receipt fraud
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Identity fraud
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Card-not-present fraud
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Cheque fraud
In addition to generating its own cases, the Unit receives referrals from banks, card companies and other police forces.
The main objectives of the Unit include: "to investigate, target and, where appropriate, arrest and seek the successful prosecution of offenders identified as responsible for organised cheque and payment card crimes."
The DCPCU was set up in April 2002 as a two-year pilot to focus on the organised criminals behind the huge increases in counterfeit card fraud. The pilot was jointly funded by the banking industry and the Home Office and staffed by police together with fraud investigators and administrative staff provided by APACS and its members.
In April 2004 the Unit achieved its status as a permanent unit. APACS and its members continue to provide fraud investigators and staff, who work together with personnel from both the City and Metropolitan police forces.
Payments Industry and Police Joint Intelligence Unit (PIPJIU)
The UK banking industry's rapid response group that shares advice and intelligence with the police to combat payment fraud.
The PIPJIU has helped eliminate many major counterfeiting rings run by organised criminals.
The PIPJIU is progressively being seen as a point of contact for the banking industry on all types of card fraud-related issues, not just those relating to skimming.
It is acting as a centre for the exchange of information about card fraud to help police find answers quickly.
This partnership is providing an infrastructure to work towards achieving a nationally co-ordinated police and banking industry approach to reducing plastic card crime figures, and to disrupting organised crime.
