credit card fraud - do the police care any more?

Question

The latest Home Office rules say the public should not bother the police if their credit card details are used by a fraudster - only banks can report this crime. Is this a green light to more credit card theft

Answer 1

In UK, if a card is used fraudulently, the bank is the victim as they are the ones who lose the money (I know it seems counterintuitive). The bank therefore has to formally make the allegation. They also have to provide the evidence in the form of transaction dates, places and amounts in statement form from their computers in order to 'prove' the offence.

There is no onus on the banks to do so which means the cardholder ends up running between to police and bank basically doing the bank's job for it. You should find that if you report fraudulent transactions to police, they will take a report but, as I say, the bank has to cooperate with police in order to take it further.

As regards theft of the actual card, if you read the small print, the card belongs to the bank and is only lent to you. This is why when you tender a card that is over the limit or there is some suspicion about it, the tenderee can seize it or destroy it on the bank's instructions.

Answer 2

In the USA, the FBI has a website for reporting this type of crime. It is actually called identity theft. It is quite serious and people do time because of it.

Looks like the laws were you are from have not caught up to the problem yet. Do report it to the banks and get the accounts closed. You may be responsible for up to 50 dollars for each account/card that has been misused. Look on the original information you received when you were issued your card.

You might want to write to your local and national newspapers' editorial pages and explain the issue and get something going. But remember banks have little resources for this and the local police are over-worked and looking for rapist and killers--I know it is a lame excuse, but it is true.

Answer 3

The police for whatever reason, overwork, paperwork or just plain lazy really do not take this type of crime seriously. We had a series of fraud committed upon our ecommerce website; I realised in time and contacted the police. I had full details of addresses in London where the goods were being delivered, it took me a long time due to being passed from one switchboard to another but I contacted the local stations in London. With the detailed information that I had, I expected the police to respond and catch the criminals in the process and recover the stolen goods. Not likely, that’s just for TV, I was fobbed off with excuses like, “we can’t do anything until we raise a crime number”, “ this has to go before an investigations panel”, “ we can’t just go around there without all the proper paperwork”. Anyway, while the police were handing out tickets for yellow line offences while eating doughnuts the criminals were busy collecting their ill gotten gains and away to another city. I know this because I did a search on google and found my stolen goods up for auction plus the address the criminals had used on previous sales, which tied in with an address for a delivery that we didn’t send. I contacted google reporting the sale of stolen property, googles response was they can’t act without the police. I contacted the police in the city where I was now 100% certain that my goods were and initially I got a great response, the address was known for criminal activity, I supplied lots of detail and emailed them all the proof required to act. I phoned again the next day hoping that my goods had been recovered before the auction winner had collected, wrong again. Back to paperwork excuses. I spent a lot of time tracking down the thieves and trying to convince the police to act, what a complete waste of time. In all 6 people had money stolen from their cards, I lost £1200 worth of equipment, and I mean lost the banks don’t lose as I will be charged back and Insurance does not cover this type of crime. Facts are that clever criminals can be in and gone before the police can start up a word processor and this lot weren’t smart at all, cos I managed to work out who and where they are.

Answer 4

Where the rozzers do a motorist for doing 34 miles an hour, the Chief Constable gets another contribution to his bonus fund.

Cathing thieves, on the other hand, is hard work and with no financial return to the CC, or charity chest, as the rozzers call it.

Answer 5

Phone the police and ask for a crime number, give this to to your bank along with other relevant details of the crime.

Answer 6

yes." tough on crime tough on the causes of crime" heard that one before. It is the start of the road to vigilantism. If the Home Office cannot be bothered to tell the Police to do theire job, which is to prevent and detect crime, who is going to convict someone of defending there family and property. I for one would never convict someone for this. Remember Tony Martin.

Answer 7

the police dont care about that i know of someone who used the previous occupiers mail that was still goin to that address to open store cards and to get credit cards she got away with a slap on the wrists!its sick really! its too much paper work for them so they dont really bother! shame really as they are the people we should have faith in!

Answer 8

No, as the only thing the police can do is ask the banks to shut down the accounts anyway.

Answer 9

Yes. My father went to use his card about a month ago and found he was transferred to his credit card company. someone had tried to buy something in Tesco online. luckily whoever it was put in the wrong D/O/B and postcode and the card got stopped. phew

Answer 10

Well, Strange s,I don't know too much about that, where your logging in from.but where I live the U.S,in Milwaukee,WI. if I were to notify the authorities about credit card fraud they would respond within an hour or so.