Fraud

What is fraud?

Fraud is the use of deception for personal or financial gain. It generally involves impersonating other people or businesses.

How has fraud changed?

In the past this would be done by approaching an individual in person. Today, emails are used to trick people into revealing personal details such as bank or credit card information, or even persuading them to send money.

How is fraud handled?

Fraud is tackled by a specialist police unit in 2 key ways:

• ❖ A national fraud squad was set up in 1946, with expert knowledge of finance, to tackle crimes in business and the stock market.
• ❖ It evolved to tackle other high-value crimes such as art theft, and is known today as the Specialist, Organised and Economic Crime Command.