MP’s from all parties are asked by eBuster for help in stopping on-line fraud.

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Reporting cyber-crime to the police

A leaked email sent to victims of an Ebay fraud has once again exposed the woeful lack of police resources devoted to solving e-crime. The email reveals:

A single police constable is leading an investigation into crimes totalling tens of thousands of pounds

A complete lack of co-ordination between different police forces

That Ebay has "a big problem" with a hijacked account scam being perpetrated across the UK

PC Pro reader, Andrew Holder, contacted us after police failed to act on his report of Ebay fraud. He paid £600 for electrical equipment that never arrived. "I phoned the police in Belfast, where the seller listed himself, but they said I should report the case to my local station, which I did," he says.

"They listened to the problem, but basically said there was nothing they could do - the Warminster station only had one officer on duty and he simply didn't have time and my case went to the bottom of the in-tray."

Holder decided to track down the seller himself and came across an internet forum dedicated to people who'd suffered the same fate. "Soon we set up another forum with 14 other victims and we started to compare notes, trying to track him down through bank details," says Holder.

"He was carrying out several different frauds, using several different accounts and many hijacked, legitimate accounts. He is purporting to sell everything from plasma TVs to outboard motors."

Through the forum, Holder also found that another victim had managed to get Hampshire police to take the matter seriously. The constable involved diligently collated the evidence gathered by the forum members and is updating them on his progress via email. Full story

This appears like a case of incompetence on the part of the police and first hand experience has shown me that it takes much more than one complaint to get any action and that’s with cast iron proof about serious fraud being presented along with violations of the road traffic act 1988 and I don’t believe the figure of only 8000 crimes being reported (see later) as in my case I didn’t even get a crime report number but lets look a little closer at the training given to police officers and ask if we as tax payers are getting value for money.

Britain's internet crimewave is booming as figures show that police investigate one alleged eBay scam every hour. Users of the auction website last year reported an estimated total of more than 8,000 crimes. eBay is now moving to halt the rise in fraudsters and conmen using the site by offering training to 2,000 police officers to tackle suspected internet fraud.

Not just 2000 Police officers but Trading standards officers so surly we should expect all this additional spending of public money to have quite a impact on the number off convictions right ?.

Fraudtracking.com , a campaigning website, estimates that British customers are losing £500,000 a day through fraudulent transactions on the various auction sites, but there were just 70 convictions for online auction fraud last year.

However, there’s a new posse in town, a group of UK cyber-vigilantes intent on running the internet auction cowboys out of town. Full story

Do the sums 8000 crimes, 2000 officers receiving ‘special training’ from eBay who have been prosecuted the world over and what do they have to show for this ! just 70 conviction so it’s no wonder people are having to turn towards vigilantes but I suspect it’s not just incompetence or just another waste of tax payers money and it’s not like I blame individual Police officers as the officer I first reported my case of fraud and deception to seemed quite willing to take up the case but I later discovered his superior officer vetoed any investigation. No what I am suggesting in the least is the police are in collusion with eBay in an effort to brush crime under the carpet and reduce workload and at worse this corruption, to me it would seem must go all the way to the top with maybe money involved having tried myself unsuccessfully to point out the obvious seriousness of a fraudster operating from the Birmingham area that is selling over 20 cars a month and certainly more than one has placed the general public in danger.

On Friday the 16th December 2005, eBay, Western Union and the ‘Sterling Proactive Prevention Team’ of MPS’ Economic and Specialist Crime Directorate joined forces to provide advice for consumers and announce a clamp down on online fraud with a ban on money transfer services payments.

eBay is working with the Metropolitan Police who have taken a lead on behalf of UK Association of Chief Police Officers [ACPO], the Home Office and the Office of Fair Trading [OFT] to educate consumers about how to stay safe trading online. full story

Yes I certainly got an education from the Birmingham Police, trading standards and eBay and that education turned out to be the police refuse to investigate saying it’s a civil matter for the trading standards who then play along for three months saying they are waiting for information from eBay who eventually admit eight accounts were opened using fake contact details and no one at the trading standards or Ebay or the police could connect more than two accounts together.

This delaying tactic serves the purpose of ensuring all eBay pages relating to the crime have long since gone together with Google links joining the various pages via Cars, addresses and telephone numbers (plus information i can not reveal here) and was it not for the fact that I managed to contact other eBay members and saved a number of pages before they were removed then i would be force to admit my case would be very weak indeed.

Nearly half of all police forces in England and Wales have officers facing charges of corruption or dishonesty, according to a survey by The Times newspaper. Altogether 105 police officers in 19 out of 43 forces are under investigation.

They include high-ranking officers such as superintendents and detective chief inspectors.

London's Metropolitan Police has by far the greatest problem with 51 officers suspended.

The survey results come days after Home Secretary Jack Straw warned senior officers that a "corrupt few" were damaging the reputation of a majority of honest members of the force.

In Gwent, one superintendent has been charged with offences relating to expenses fraud and three detective chief inspectors in other forces are under investigation. Full story

I have a couple of friends who are bobbies on the beat that work outside the Birmingham area and they seemed surprise no action had been taken once I explained the evidence I had and how persistent I had been so I know not all coppers are bad and they to meet up against internal corruption.

A Web site allegedly operated by "serving and retired Surrey Police officers" is set to blow the whistle on police corruption.

The site is due to go live on Sunday and claims to be written and produced by serving officers who have themselves been the "victims of police corruption".

It claims it will details the "conduct of certain senior police officers".

Those behind the site claim they are merely "expressing [their] rights under Article 10 of the Human Rights Act 1998".

Article 10 relates to freedom of speech.

Those running surreypolice.com have already received a letter from the Surrey Police Force, based in Guildford, threatening "injunctive relief".

This, though, is for cybersquatting. Full story

Now not wanting to be accused of cybersquatting or driving a car like the nice superintendent from Birmingham pointed out to me was dangerous after I had already paid for a mechanical report from a ministry of transport registered mechanic I have reported my own individual case to the IPCC but it’s slow going after eight months trying for a little bit of simple justice.

Detective sergeant Damian Morgan of West Midlands Police’s high-tech crime unit says thresholds do not officially exist, but such decisions may take place.

‘There are no threshold policies written down on paper,’ he said. ‘But there may be local decisions being made on these crimes and how far they get investigated, rather than a central policy being written. This may also be the case in other local forces.’ Full story

I would like to bring a corporate case against the Birmingham Metropolitan police and I would like help to ensure that my request under the freedom of information act is not met with the same contempt I have encounters to date or that I encounter any form of discrimination from the police for doing what I see is my public duty to do and yes I realize this is a mammoth task but hopefully it will not be any bigger a task than collecting ten million pages from eBay to ensure never again will anyone be placed in the same position I was placed in by the Birmingham Police and trading standards as they played pass the ball whilst time ticked away to eBays advantage.

Comment (1) Posted on 8/12/2009 by Susan
What do the police do?

Yep internet crime is on the up and where are the police to assist, they dont want to know about it, or burglary etc etc, they are to busy stopping people having freedom of speech at protests or sitting on the side of the road to pull you over for going 5 miles over the speed limit or because your tyres are a little worn.

Come on guys we pay your wages why do you work against us and not for us.

Susan - Cardiff

Comment (2) Posted on 9/24/2009 by jammer

susan

all the police do is hand out speeding fines and look after the gov so that broon has all that stealth tax to spend as he wants with his friends.

i con tacted the police about ebay and they did not give me the time of day so work that one out

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