New figures show that cybercrime victims need to use civil action to recover money, says expert

Alan Sheeley of Pinsent Masons, the law firm behind Out-Law.com, was commenting after The Times reported that fewer than one in 100 reported cyber frauds were actively investigated by the police (registration required), while only one in 500 reported cases ended with a criminal conviction for the fraudster. He said that, based on these statistics, "law enforcers should be placed under a statutory duty to tell victims of crime that there is an alternative to their inefficient processes".

The new figures emerged ahead of the inclusion of cybercrime in the official crime figures for England and Wales, which is due to begin next month. In a letter to senior police earlier this month, which was obtained by the Mail on Sunday, City of London Police commissioner Adrian Leppard said that the change would result in an additional three million offences being included in the official total.

"According to The Times, last year 230,000 alleged crimes were reported to Action Fraud, the national fraud reporting helpline," Sheeley said. "This accounts for 7% of the estimated three million frauds committed. Cyber criminals know that they are unlikely to be caught."

"These terrible success rates need to be considered alongside the success rates of actually recovering monies from the criminals, which is really the victim's ultimate goal. The National Audit Office report of 2013 identified that only 26p in every £100 criminal proceeds was actually confiscated in 2012/13," he said.

Action Fraud is operated by City of London Police and was set up in 2013 as a nationwide, centralised means of allowing members of the public and businesses to report financial crime. However its work has recently been the subject of a number of critical press reports, particularly in relation to allowing calls to go unanswered after the company that previously operated its call centres went into administration.

According to The Times' report, individuals and businesses that report fraud to the helpline are given a police crime reference number, but the decision on whether to formally investigate their case is based on a computer algorithm which analyses all the reports and decides which ones should be reviewed by the police. Action Fraud's website itself warns those submitting a report that cases "cannot be investigated individually". Instead, the information is used to "aid the police in building up a national picture of fraud", according to the service.

"Cyber criminals know that this is a crime that can be conducted without balaclavas and weapons, that can be repeated again and again and will net a massive return with minimal risk of being caught and thereafter prosecuted," said Sheeley, who is an expert in civil fraud cases and asset recovery. "This is such a low-risk crime because of people's reluctance to report cybercrime, along with law enforcers' inefficiencies."

"Based on the statistics, law enforcers should be placed under a statutory duty to tell victims of crime that there is an alternative to their inefficient processes. Civil fraud and asset recovery solicitors are well aware of how frauds are committed and how they can act to maximise the chances of recovery. A civil fraud solicitor is focused on one goal: recovery of the money," he said.

This was particularly useful in cybercrime cases, because civil fraud solicitors can seek disclosure orders with gagging provisions against internet service providers, credit card companies and banks, allowing the ultimate fraudster to be identified and money taken located, he said. They could then use freezing orders to prevent the fraudster from moving the money into other accounts or out of the country, he said.