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UK cardholder not present fraud MK2

Seems the police do care a bit

         

ytswy

6:00 pm on Aug 2, 2004 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



Back in May I posted a rant [webmasterworld.com] while in a bad mood about the UK police not being interested enough to nick a guy who had blatantly placed a fraudulent order with us - we'd offered to send out a dummy parcel on a timed delivery, and let them turn up and arrest him.

They'd told us to write to them, which we did, fairly snottily as I recall. Imagine our surprise when today we got a call from a DS in the "customer's" local area.

Seems that at some point in the intervening time (on the strength of our letter apparently) they raided the guy's house - finding a load of empty computer boxes, but no dodgy goods. The CPS wouldn't let them prosecute since it would end up our word against his.

I'm not sure whether this is a good thing or even worse - he's still a free man, and the police must have used a load of resources achiving nothing - but on the other hand they're after this guy now (they weren't to happy with the CPS's decision) and if he tries it again and THE RETAILER BOTHERS TO COMPLAIN, they may get a case together.

I know most people just ignore fraud attempts as a waste of time, and in the vast majority of cases it's all you can do. But I've had my faith restored a little bit, and maybe if we all made the effort to report the really blatant ones - where you have an address and can absolutely guarantee the order is a fraud - there might be a few arrests at the end of it.

I suppose for most of you it's all done online, so hitting the delete button is the cost-effective solution. We deal over the phone so it's a lot more personal - I spoke to this guy myself and I would really love to see him go down..

Faith

7:11 am on Aug 4, 2004 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



Great news! There's hope after all! Well done you.

PCInk

8:09 am on Aug 4, 2004 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member Top Contributors Of The Month



It's worth contacting them - but I wouldn't normally expect any response. The police are interested in any fraud attempts where the delivery address is an address already under investigation, even for other crimes.

They have taken statements from our company before for known criminals.

Sometimes it is the stack of evidence they need - lots of small, seemingly insignificant evidence, added together, can often form a good case.