Identity theft victim who lost £6k slams Action Fraud and police for not taking action

A man who lost £6,000 in an identity theft and fraud says he is appalled at the lack of action by authorities.

The victim says he passed on the name and address of the female fraudster to Action Fraud, which is the UK's national reporting centre for all frauds, scams and cyber crimes.

However, the case was never forwarded to police for investigation.

Action Fraud has now confirmed that, under Home Office guidelines, Identity theft alone is not currently classed as a “police-recordable crime”.

The victim alleges that a female called his bank to change the address on his account and then ordered a card and a new PIN number.

"She then used my account as it was her own… This happened over the space of almost two years and I lost £6,000,” he claimed.

The man passed all the details on to Action Fraud and received a reply stating: “On this occasion, based on the information currently available, it has not been possible to identify a line of enquiry which a law enforcement organisation in the United Kingdom could pursue."

The victim said: “I know our police force is understaffed but how can they say that there are no lines of enquiries that they could follow?

"I gave them the name and address of the person who stole the money from my account and the bank records all of the calls she made... I can’t believe that the police can’t get enough evidence to charge her.”

To make matters worse, the victim claims the woman went on to successfully receive a grant from the local authority under the Local Welfare Provision scheme, which helps people in urgent need.

"i only found out when I tried to claim a grant for myself to buy food and essentials,” he said.

"It’s appalling that nobody will do anything about it.”

Pauline Smith, Head of Action Fraud, confirmed to the Citizen that the victim’s report had been received.

She said: “It was assessed by the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau (NFIB) at the City of London Police but has not been passed to a police force for investigation. It will continue to be reviewed against new information received from Action Fraud reports.”

She said Identity theft is not currently classed as a “police-recordable crime” under Home Office guidelines.

"The use of another person‘s identification details (or the use of false identification details), often referred to as identity theft, is not in itself an offence in law. It is the action that is undertaken, using those identification details, that becomes the crime that needs to be considered in respect of whether an offence has occurred.

“In these circumstances, the victim of the fraud is the bank who have issued a new card to a third party claiming to be the account owner.

Information on how to protect yourself from being a victim of identity theft is available online here and here.