Fight against financial crime needs joined-up approach, says expert, as national 'taskforce' launches

The new Joint Fraud Taskforce's early work will focus on improving intelligence-sharing between the financial sector, government and law enforcement, in order to prevent fraudsters from exploiting gaps and vulnerabilities. It will also help to raise public awareness through a list of the 10 'most wanted' fraudsters, and work to establish "a much richer understanding of how fraud happens, and what can be done to stop it", according to Theresa May, the home secretary.

Members of the taskforce include the City of London Police, National Crime Agency, the Bank of England, fraud prevention body Cifas, from Financial Fraud Action UK (FFA UK) and the chief executives of the major banks. The new taskforce will report to the Home Office, as well as publishing public updates, the home secretary told MPs.

An estimated 3.8 million people experienced some form of online fraud in the year ending June 2015 according to the latest Crime Survey for England and Wales, which was updated last year to include online fraud and cyber crimes for the first time. These figures reflect the public's experience of crime, rather than crimes reported to the police. New figures from FFA UK, which coordinates the financial sector's response to fraud, banks' and card companies' security systems detected and prevented a total of £910.9 million worth of attempted card, online and telephone banking and cheque fraud from occurring in the first six months of 2015.

Civil fraud and asset recovery expert Alan Sheeley of Pinsent Masons, the law firm behind Out-Law.com, said that it was "encouraging" to see evidence of support for a joined-up approach to tackling fraud. Particularly welcome was the new taskforce's commitment to the prevention of fraud, through raising awareness and training up bank staff to help identify victims and potential victims, he said.

"Centralised anti-fraud measures in the UK have long been under-funded and under-supported - by way of example, less than one third of the frauds reported to Action Fraud each year are referred for investigation by the police and suspected fraudsters have only a one-in-500 chance of being prosecuted," he said. "Such figures are extremely concerning given the escalation of fraud in the UK: statistics suggest that individuals in England and Wales have a one in eight chance of being affected."

"Given the increasing sophistication of many fraudsters operating today, it is imperative that law enforcement works together with banks and other businesses to develop a better awareness of the many and varied types of fraud that are emerging, and formulate a unified and comprehensive approach. It is particularly welcoming to see that the taskforce intends to apply a pro-active, preventative approach to fraud - however, it will need to be very clear about how such measures are implemented in order to ensure that they are effective. It will also be interesting to see to what extent such intelligence sharing is supported by the banks," he said.

UK privacy laws, for example, would prevent the UK replicating Australia's approach to fighting fraud, Sheeley said. Project Sunbird, a collaboration between the Western Australian Police and Western Australian government's Department of Commerce, is able to analyse international transaction data to detect patterns consistent with fraud and pro-actively reach out to individuals who may have been victims, he said.

"While the Project Sunbird model is not necessarily appropriate for the UK, it is a helpful example of a creative and resourceful approach encouraging effective results," he said.

"The Joint Fraud Taskforce needs to ensure that it is equally creative, equally resourceful, if it is to meet its mandate of effectively combating fraud. Further, it awaits to be seen what approach it will take towards responding to fraud and ensuring that the victims of fraud are fully informed about their rights and prospects of recovery," he said.