How effective is credit card fraud reporting?

Recent reports have indicated that credit card fraud reporting may not be as effective as hoped following changes that were made to the way in which card fraud has to now be reported by victims.

The changes were made by the Home Office to the 2006 Fraud Act, which meant that victims of credit card fraud had to report the crime to their bank and not to the police. This also applies to cheque fraud and online fraud. The bank should then be passing on details of the fraud to the relevant police department.

It was hoped that this method of reporting would aid the smooth running of dealing with credit card fraud, and would make the process less intimidating and worrying for the victim of the fraud. However, some are worried that even though they are reporting the credit card fraud to the banks the report is not going to the police quickly enough, which could lead to a series of problems.

According to one BBC report there were some police stations that had not received any reports of credit card fraud from banks since the changes were made to reporting methods on April of this year.

However, victims of card fraud have no other choice now than to report the matter to their bank, and therefore can do nothing about these delays. With around thirteen thousand cases of card fraud each week, BBC reporters were surprised to find that some police stations had not had any reports from banks since April.

A spokesperson from Apacs stated that banks are dealing with passing on the information, and that because the new reporting methods was still in its early stages there could be some teething problems.

She added: 'It will be up to the financial institution involved, and not the account holder, to pass details of the relevant crime on to police.'

Tom Smith
2nd July 2007