Action Fraud reporting enough if scammed by fraudsters? There are few things in life more certain than death and taxes. However, if you have been defrauded do you know what to do if you have been scammed after going to Action Fraud? If not then consider this; is reporting the matter to the police through say Action Fraud going to be enough to get you your money back? It is conceivably a useful starting point but that might be all it turns out to be.
There is a public duty to report fraud to Action Fraud and to the police, otherwise no-one might report it and nothing might be done at all on any case if no-one ever reported such matters.
There are no guarantees and given the pressures on the public pursue and suggestions that the scale of fraud might be increasing as opposed to being adequately combated, it might be naive to imagine that mere reporting will produce recovery for creditors of lost funds. Not every fraud reported is necessarily fully investigated and the vast majority seemingly go unsolved. Which? has suggested in a report in 2018 that more than 96% go unsolved.
Unfortunately, there appears to be conceivably little substitute for being proactive and even participation in your own investigations to discover and recover your money.
Do You Know What To Do After You Have Been To Action Fraud?
If as it seems that potentially more than 96% of fraud may go unsolved, then from the vantage point of the fraudster the odds appear somewhat in their favour, that they will in effect get away with it.
If that is correct then consider if a properly targeted investigation would still lead to over 96% of fraud cases going unsolved. I suspect it is a matter of resources as opposed to the sophistication of the scammer or the fraudster.
Consider Using Insolvency When Uncertain What To Do In Addition To Reporting To Action Fraud
I investigate fraudulent and other misconduct as a Licensed Insolvency Practitioner whilst appointed as Liquidator of companies in liquidation and or Trustee in Bankruptcy of a bankruptcy estate for the benefit of creditors.
Some of my reported cases have led to creditors receiving up to 100 pence in the £. Tenacity, persistence and a robust search for the truth appears more often than not, to lead to discovery of the fraud or misconduct. Discovery of the evidence as to who has done what and how it has been done, enables proceedings to be brought to recover money for creditors, typically through civil court proceedings for compensation.
The Insolvency Act 1986 enables creditors who have unfairly lost money through fraud and other misconduct in insolvency proceedings through a class remedy ie. the insolvency proceedings, to appoint a Licensed Insolvency Practitioner to act as Liquidator and or Trustee In Bankruptcy to bring civil recovery actions such as wrongful trading, fraudulent trading, unlawful dividends, misfeasance and antecedent transactions to recover distanced assets and obtain compensation.
I consider this is an effective remedy compared with waiting for a prosecuting authority to come along and deploy the criminal justice system. The burden of proof is higher than in the civil court and the appetite unfortunately for such cases to be progressed when violent crime cases have to be dealt with also, I fear leads to them being dropped and or materially delayed.
It is arguably a bit of a pity that even violent crime appears to seemingly automatically have a higher priorty in the criminal justice system to that of fraud. Undoubtedly there will be certain crimes such as rape, child abuse and murder for example only, that reasonably require being afforded priority to that of fraud. However, both violent crime and fraud can both have devastating consequences for the victims.
Imagine the person threatened in the street and forced to hand over some money. A reprehensible reality in all our towns and cities. Compare and contrast (if indeed it is possible) that with the person who has worked for many years and had been looking forward to justifiably enjoying their retirement after having built up a nest egg but who loses the same when a fraudster comes along and cons them out of it.
Both incidents can be devastating with potentially long term consequences. The mugger might cause the victim such turmoil that they might fear to venture out alone. However, rightly or wrongly one might assume that most victims of muggers would eventually return to normality and time would be a healer, to enable them to venture out again. Whereas the person who lost their retirement monies may be faced with far longer and far deeper scars. They may have sacrificed much to develop their retirement fund and they might now have to return to work (if indeed they are able to do so) to set about plugging the shortfall left behind from the scam to which they unwittingly have sadly fallen victim of a fraud. Who has suffered the greater injustice? Who deserves greater priority in the criminal justice system?
Arguably the person scammed by fraudsters might have had a less frightening experience but the enduring nature of the crime that they have fallen victim might be far more traumatic in the long term. So why is it that the criminal justice system might appear more focused on those people mugged as opposed to those scammed fraudsters? I would imagine this is down to resources to solve the crime and obtain the requisite evidence to obtain a conviction. You should still report to Action Fraud.
I have experienced involvement as a witness in the criminal justice system involving financial crime allegations. My experience of the system in action was disappointing . Trials appear repeatedly delayed, sometimes for years at a time and then even dropped.
Proactive Pursuit Of Fraudsters
Where does this leave us? Well coming back to my original point which is that it seems to me there is little substitute for being proactive yourself to recover the money that you have been scammed out of by fraudsters.
The ability of a victim to investigate and obtain information to assemble evidence does indeed exist. The question is do you have the patience and the desire to spend your time getting your teeth into an investigation. Investigations to assemble evidence are often not rocket science. Certainly assembling evidence by obtaining information from third parties can be frustrating and time consuming but there is no reason that it cannot be done. The General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR“) and the Data Protection Act 2018 may have its bureaucratic features but for the victim of a fraud it may be a welcome weapon in your armoury to entitle you to identify and discover information that you need, to enable you to purse the fraudster from whom you might wish to recover lost money. You can use your Article 12(3) Subject Access Rights to obtain your personal data.
The question perhaps is this – beyond cases that can only be done with the expertise of a skilled professionally qualified person, is simply leaving and expecting someone else (like a public prosecutor) to resolve it for you the only answer? Even if you have been scammed by fraudsters who have been prosecuted and put away for periods of time, prison in itself does not recover your money for you and therefore is the civil route not something to consider additional to reporting to Action Fraud? Do you know what to do if you have been scammed?
If you do not know what to do if you have been scammed by fraudsters and you have reported at matter to Action Fraud then get in touch and our CEO Elliot Green will speak to you initially free of charge to see if we can assist you with the problem. Email us at contact@oliverelliot.co.uk or request a callback.
