A specialist police department has stopped £25 million worth of fraud occurring in the first half of the year.
The Dedicated Card and Payment Crime Unit (DCPCU) has revealed it has completed 84 arrests and interviews under caution between January and June 2018, and convicted 26 fraudsters to a total of 33 years in prison.
Glyn Whittick, temporary detective chief inspector of the DCPCU, which is sponsored by the finance industry, said the department continues to “successfully target the criminal gangs responsible for fraud”.
“Criminal gangs are increasingly sophisticated and taking advantage of new technologies to commit fraud online,” he noted, adding that co-operation between the police and the sector means the unit can “stay one step ahead”.
During the first six months of the year, DCPCU has uncovered work from seven organised crime groups and found 8,651 card numbers.
It has also provided £122,000 of compensation back to the victims from the confiscation of criminal assets.
Preventing fraudulent activity is growing increasingly important, as more and more people are becoming victims of fraud in the UK.
Indeed, comparethemarket.com recently revealed that 4.7 million Brits have been defrauded in the last 12 months, with £2 billion being stolen from their accounts collectively.
With fraudsters stealing £833 from each of their accounts, this is a massive increase of 38 per cent from 2017’s figures when they were taking just £233.
Members of the public who have been victims of fraud in the past might want to hire debt recovery investigators in Surrey who can help them reclaim the money they have lost.
