Police fraud centre ready for takeoff

Detective superintendent Charlie McMurdie of the Metropolitan Police Service, one of the architects of the Police Central e-Crime Unit (PCeU), has revealed pilots for the National Fraud Reporting Centre are due to kick off imminently.

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The centre will work hand-in-hand with the PCeU as a central contact point for individuals and companies targeted by cyber criminals.

Speaking at an industry event organised by online payments company SecureTrading last week, McMurdie confirmed the centre will be run by the City of London Police Force, which aims to set up a dedicated call centre for taking reports initially but also hopes to develop an internet channel after the call centre has been established.

Alongside this reporting structure will be a National Fraud Intelligence Bureau, which is also in development.

According to McMurdie it will be a multi-agency body equipped to decide where the information received from the public should be directed within the UK's fraud investigation forces.

She said: "I will have staff ensconced in that centre so that as reports start to come in, and industry has got somewhere to report fraudulent transactions, we can try to provide law enforcement."

McMurdie added the Bureau is deciding what data fields it will collate and what analytical methods will be used to draw out meaningful information from the data.