Report Fraud
The question
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, (a) whether the amount of money that an individual loses as a victim of fraud is a criterion used to decide whether to take an incident reported to Report Fraud forward for investigation.
Answered by Sarah Jones
Reports submitted to Report Fraud are considered by the service’s National Crime Analysis Service and evaluated to assess the information available which could assist an investigation.
Where there is enough evidence available and a viable lead, the case is sent to the appropriate police force or other law enforcement partners to consider whether enforcement activity should take place.
Once a report is submitted, Report Fraud will search for any matching suspect details from other cases previously reported, and if found, the report will be added to those cases and assessed as a package. Where a report cannot be matched to another report, it is still scored individually based on any lines of enquiry that are provided, and if scoring allows will be sent for review and potential investigation by the relevant local police force.
Monetary loss is considered as part of this broader assessment process.
All victims who report fraud to Report Fraud will receive support either directly from their local police force, or through Report Fraud Victim Services. Report Fraud Victim Services offers a bespoke service to victims of fraud where their case has not been taken forward for investigation and aims to reduce the likelihood of repeat victimisation.
Report Fraud are unable to disclose the exact thresholds for their assessment as this would give criminals information which would allow them to be confident of evading justice.
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