Fraud

FEATURE: The latest Global Financial Fraud Threat Assessment from INTERPOL highlights the “industrialisation” of transnational financial fraud and the likelihood that offending will offending “escalate significantly” over the next five years as artificial intelligence leads to easier entry for criminal networks, prompting the agency to set out a range of initiatives to tackle the threat, as Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons reports.

FEATURE: This month sees the launch of a £30m Online Crime Centre combining police, intelligence services, banking, mobile networks and major tech firms in the fight against fraud – a key element in the UK Government’s recently launched Fraud Strategy 2026-2029, as Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons reports.

FEATURE: Research recently published by The Police Foundation on the health impact of fraud is calling for a national evidence-based ‘vulnerability framework’ to ensure a more consistent approach towards victims by police forces in England and Wales, along with a multi-agency, trauma-informed service model for victims, amid concerns over the life-threatening impact of the crime and the fear that police are being left to fill the gap in specialist support, as Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons reports.

FEATURE: With fraud remaining a constant and growing threat to individuals, businesses and national economies, and with the rapidly developing digital tools available to organised crime groups, Policing Insight’s Andrew Staniforth looks at the latest assessment from Europol of the need for financial services organisations to prioritise post-quantum cryptography – particularly for point-of-sale systems – to protect both consumers and businesses.

FEATURE: As the scale and complexity of financial crime, fraud and cyber-crime continue to grow in the UK and globally, Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons explores two new measures to tackle the challenges – the creation of the We Fight Fincrime Association, and the launch of the victim-centred Report Fraud service by City of London Police.

OPINION: A report published last year noted that the global art market in 2024 was worth $57.5billion in sales, but the lack of transparency in the market offers a high-profile opportunity for criminals; Professors Guergana Guintcheva and Bertrand Monnet of France’s EDHEC Business School explore why art is such a target for organised crime, the processes behind money laundering and counterfeiting, and the efforts to tackle such criminal activities.

ANALYSIS: Fraud is now the most common form of crime across the world, and the impact on victims can be devasting, but in many countries it remains a low policing priority; recent research by Dr Rasha Kassem, who leads Aston University’s Fraud Research Group, and Professor Umut Turksen of the University of Exeter, highlights that structural reforms and extra funding alone are unlikely to shift the balance to improve the response to fraud, unless policing can redefine value, harm and legitimacy in its daily practice.

OPINION: With online cross-border financial scams driving fraud to new levels – it now accounts for 40% of all crime against individuals in England and Wales – most police and government efforts remain focused on preventative and defensive measures; but new research from Professor Mark Button and Associate Professor Branislav Hock at the University of Portsmouth highlights several ways to take more offensive actions against fraudsters, including embracing the work of the private anti-scam community.

FEATURE: A new report from the Police Foundation and Virgin Media O2 is calling for a systemic overhaul of the police response to fraud – a crime which now accounts for 43% of all offence against over-16s in England and Wales – after highlighting “unsustainable” outdated structures, inadequate resources, and a lack of skills and prioritisation in the way law enforcement deals with the “fraud epidemic”, as Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons reports.

ANALYSIS: Organised crime groups are defrauding consumers and retail businesses across the US of millions out of dollars through gift card fraud – a crime largely overlooked in many other countries, but which former Deputy Assistant Director for the US Department of Homeland Security Raul Aguilar believes will soon be affecting Australia, New Zealand and the UK, as he told Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons.

FEATURE: The latest figures released by Action Fraud, the UK fraud reporting agency run by City of London Police, show that overall reports of investment fraud have fallen but the amount of money stolen by fraudsters has increased, with cryptocurrency scams, ‘pig butchering’ schemes, and pension and recovery fraud all cause for concern, as Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons reports.

FEATURE: Dr Usman A. Ojedokun, a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Sociology at the University of Ibadan in Nigeria, explores some of the context and contributing factors to the continuing problem of police impersonation in Nigeria, the impact it has on both the community and the Nigeria Police Force, and what steps can be taken to tackle the issue.

FEATURE: A new report on future trends in online fraud, part of a research project carried out by Crest Advisory, the Police Foundation and the Institute for Crime and Justice Policy Research at Birkbeck, University of London, warns that the growing use of artificial intelligence could trigger an “arms race” between criminals and law enforcement, and calls for a shift from reactive to anticipatory strategies to tackle online fraud, as Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons reports.

ANALYSIS: Fraud accounts for a huge proportion of crime in the UK as well as other countries, with romance fraud particularly prevalent – and having significant impacts on victims over and above financial losses; Aston University Senior Lecturer Dr Rasha Kassem, an expert in fraud, explores the methods of those perpetrating romance frauds, the impacts on victims, and what police officers can do to combat the crime as well as provide support and reassurance.

ANALYSIS: Fraud makes up nearly 40% of all crime in England and Wales, but fewer than 1% of cases result in a conviction. With the National Fraud Strategy more than a year old and a new government in place at Westminster, Ian Weinfass spoke to experts to find out whether it is time for action against fraudsters to be stepped up.

ANALYSIS: UK policing in the 21st century faces a raft of complex challenges, but officers are rarely asked for their own views on what they are and how they should be tackled; new research based on a series of in-depth interviews with experienced UK officers, carried out by Dr Rasha Kassem, Senior Lecturer at Aston University, and Major Dr Engin Erken, Lecturer at Turkey’s Gendarmerie and Coast Guard Academy, identified the key challenges officers face, and their suggestions on how they could be solved.

INTERVIEW: In his first interview in the role, Chair of the City of London Police Authority Board Tijs Broeke spoke about his goals for the force, how a shocking homophobic attack encouraged him to get involved in policing as a special constable, and why politicians focusing on wokeness in policing are “wasting their time”, as Policing Insight’s James Sweetland reports.

FEATURE: From fraud to CSE to radicalisation, generative artificial intelligence is already changing criminal operations; experts at the recent UCL International Crime Science Conference discussed what changes that are “faster than the industrial revolution” mean now and for the future, and debated ways to uphold public safety, as Policing Insight’s Ian Weinfass reports.

OPINION: While scams may have traditionally been viewed as mainly opportunistic offences of consumer fraud, Deloitte fraud and intelligence specialist Paul Curwell and Nicholas McTaggart, financial crime consultant and former Australian Federal Police national co-ordinator, warn that increasingly sophisticated and AI-based scams are being used to raise funds for terrorist organisations and transnational serious and organised crime groups, and need a more co-ordinated global response.

INNOVATION: In the latest in a series of articles exploring the opportunities and challenges presented to police by the rapid growth of artificial intelligence (AI), Chief Philip Lukens explores implications of synthetic identities, how they can be adopted and exploited for criminal use, and the strategies law enforcement needs to put in place to combat them.

INTERVIEW: With forces facing a range of competing priorities in fighting crime, a dedicated high-harm fraud unit set up by Thames Valley Police is supporting victims and securing convictions against fraudsters targeting vulnerable elderly people with romance and courier fraud, as DI Duncan Wynn explained to Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons.

INTERVIEW: In this second half of a two-part interview, City of London Police Temporary Commissioner Peter O’Doherty spoke to Policing Insight’s James Sweetland about the challenges posed by fraud and cybercrime, the opportunities offered by artificial intelligence and a national approach to new technology, and why the Police Service of Northern Ireland data breach has implications for all forces.

INNOVATION: Cybercrime is a challenge for all businesses, but it’s an especially complex one for smaller companies to take on; in an exclusive interview with Policing Insight’s James Sweetland, Ian Hickling and Jonathan Green explain how free Home Office-funded tool Police CyberAlarm might form part of the answer – and help police to develop the “actionable intelligence” needed to deal with online threats.

INTERVIEW: In the second half of an exclusive two-part interview with Policing Insight’s James Sweetland, Temporary Assistant Commissioner Nik Adams – the City of London Police lead for fraud and cybercrime – explored the policing response to offences which now constitute nearly 50% of all crime in England and Wales, including the launch of the Government’s National Fraud Strategy and a £150million overhaul of Action Fraud.