APACS announces new fraud fighting unit
By Davey Winder in Editorial
Posted in Blog, Security, e-commerce on
The UK payments association, APACS, has announced the creation of the Payment Industry and Police Joint Intelligence Unit (PIPJIU) as part of a banking industry £5 million contribution to fighting fraud. It comes as the result of an amalgamation of the banking industry’s Fraud Intelligence Bureau (FIB) which previously distributed information between the banking industry and law enforcement throughout the UK, and the intelligence section of the Dedicated Cheque and Plastic Crime Unit (DCPCU). Launched in April 2002, the DCPCU has been responsible for more than £230 million in savings from reduced fraud activity and has recovered more than 244,000 counterfeit cards and card numbers. It has also secured 156 convictions and made almost 400 arrests on fraud-related matters.
PIPJIU itself is to be staffed by banking industry fraud specialists who will work alongside officers from the City of London and Metropolitan Police. Indeed, PIPJIU is to be managed by Detective Inspector Graham Goodwin and consists of 15 staff, including ten police officers and civilian staff from the City of London and Metropolitan Police and five seconded banking industry specialists.
That’s a lot of impressive sounding acronyms, but what do is it all mean, what does it all add up to in the ingoing fight against banking fraud? APACS insist it will provide a more efficient approach to the collation and dissemination of fraud intelligence to police forces throughout the country, but more than this it will also have wider reaching responsibilities to address all types of banking fraud; not just cheque and plastic card fraud.
APACS has also announced the new Fraud Intelligence Sharing System (FISS) to go alongside the new unit, which will enable the banking industry to share information on all confirmed, attempted and suspected fraud in a central, shared database.
DCI John Folan, Head of the DCPCU, is rather excited by it all: “The combined investment by the banking industry in the DCPCU, the enhanced joint intelligence unit and the new data sharing system now totals almost £5 million per year. With this increased funding and a wider remit, our primary objective is to build on the already successful work undertaken by the banking industry and the DCPCU in combating fraud. We are confident that the merging of APACS’s Fraud Intelligence Bureau and the DCPCU’s intelligence unit will aid efficiency and help in the ongoing fight to combat all types of banking fraud.”
Rated: 100% (1 votes)
Loading ...Comment by Michael Tott - March 26, 2008 on 12:39 pm
I wonder how FISS fits in withing the data protection legislation as it just covers suspected crimes.
Could someone find that they can no longer make payments etc. due to a suspicion?
Where is the accountability?
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