Work and Pensions Committee chair Stephen Timms has written to the City of London Police asking why no urgent action has been taken against fraudsters masquerading as representatives of Dalriada.
Timms wrote to Commander Clinton Blackburn, national co-ordinator for economic crime at the City of London Police, last month over reports that “secondary scammers” – fraudsters who target those who have already been victims of a scam – were using a Vodafone number impersonating Dalriada.
Dalriada itself alerted the City of London Police and Action Fraud, but Timms said he was concerned that “no urgent action appears to be being taken”.
He said that Vodafone could not act without a report from the police, which has yet to be issued. “As a result, the scammers are able to continue to operate,” he wrote.
Ideally, there would be wider-reaching legislation requiring a duty to protect and/or corporate criminal liability for failure to prevent across all online and telecommunications enablers
Chris Bell, City of London Police
Timms asked Blackburn to look into the case as a matter of urgency, to outline how such cases should be handled in a best-case scenario “under current circumstances”, and explain "what barriers there are to taking urgent action”.
He also asked that Blackburn set out any legislative or organisational changes he felt would improve responses to this type of scam.
Police call for ‘wider-reaching legislation’
In a response to Timms’s letter published last week, Chris Bell, service delivery director, fraud and cyber crime reporting and analytics at the City of London Police, said that “disruption activity” had occurred taking the scammers’ telephone numbers out of operation.
“In addition, the reports submitted by Dalriada Trustees, while themselves not meeting national crime recording standards, are being considered as part of a case review of linked crime reports with the aim of disseminating this to a law enforcement agency to pursue (criminal investigation) action,” he wrote.
“This is the unique benefit that Action Fraud delivers; every report helps to build a rich intelligence picture of fraud and cyber offending across England, Wales and Northern Ireland.”
Bell said that the City of London Police’s advice is for victims of fraud and cyber crime to continue to report to Action Fraud, which “provides a central analysis function that enables fraud and cyber crime reports from across the country to be linked through analysis”.
“As has been outlined, no report is wasted: it will be used to enhance and inform the development of other cases; to take disruption action against the enablers of fraud; to support the development and delivery of Protect campaigns raising wider public awareness of the methods employed by fraudsters; and to allow information to be passed to forces of victims in their area who may benefit from additional support,” he continued.
Acknowledging that the service needs to “continually evolve and develop”, Bell said that a series of strategic objectives were being created for a “next generation service” to improve outcomes.
He explained that existing barriers to taking urgent action principally stemmed from demand exceeding capacity, citing statistics showing that crimes reported to Action Fraud have risen by 34 per cent in the past four years, with the past financial year alone recording a 28 per cent increase on the previous year.
“This rising volume of demand is against a backdrop of reduced resourcing across the whole of policing. We are working closely with the Home Office and other agencies, and building greater capacity and capability across policing,” he said.
Addressing Timms’ question regarding legislative and organisational changes, Bell seconded reforms already called for by the Work and Pensions Committee.
These include “know your customer” regulation around the use of telecoms services and the purchase of domains, “particularly those that mimic company names”, he said.
More effective call blocking “and other technical solutions” to prevent the misuse of telecoms services would also be welcomed, he added.
The most substantive change would address perceived shortcomings in the government’s online safety bill. While the bill covers user-generated content, it excludes advertisements and cloned websites and other techniques used to perpetrate financial harm, a point the Work and Pensions Committee has criticised.
“This leaves a gap in the protection provided for the public,” Bell wrote.
“Ideally, there would be wider-reaching legislation requiring a duty to protect and/or corporate criminal liability for failure to prevent across all online and telecoms enablers.”
Swift action taken to protect members
MPs call on government to mandate anti-scam intelligence sharing
MPs on the Work and Pensions Committee have called on the government to beef up anti-scam intelligence sharing via legislation, amid warnings tech giants are profiting from pension scam adverts.
Commenting on its role in the scam at the centre of the exchange, Neil Copeland, director at Dalriada Trustees, told Pensions Expert: “On May 5, Dalriada became aware of fraudulent correspondence being sent to members of the SCCL Pension Scheme, a scheme already under review by the Pensions Regulator on suspicion of being a scam.
“As the TPR-appointed trustee charged with the administration and governance of the scheme, Dalriada immediately began its own investigation and contacted all members of the scheme, alerting them to the scam and the actions they should take.
“Dalriada also contacted Action Fraud, the police and TPR. Dalriada’s prompt action appears to have prevented any members of the scheme falling victim to this attempted scam,” he added.
