Fraud gangs turn focus on business

BRITISH businesses are facing a huge rise in the theft of valuable documents and personal data by organised gangs.

According to Detective Superintendent Ken Farrow, head of the City of London police fraud squad, specialist criminals are turning their attention to companies to obtain individual and corporate data that let them perpetrate identity fraud.

Research group MORI says this growing trade in confidential documents is estimated to be costing Britain more than £1.3bn a year.

'There's a big industry now in obtaining confidential company information and purporting to represent that company, or creating a spin-off company using the information. We are seeing the big hits going in that way,' said Farrow, adding that the police were now trying to raise awareness of the scale of the problem.

The targeting of companies is part of a general increase in identity theft sparked by the introduction of the new Chip and Pin technology.

This is likely hugely to increase the security surrounding credit cards, which means professional gangs are looking for other avenues to commit fraud and adopting more aggressive tactics to obtain valuable information.

'There's a lot of effort being put into subverting staff inside companies because there are a lot of documents that are left lying around, like cheque books and the specimen signatures of directors,' said Farrow.

He said police are dealing with a large amount of insider fraud, with people recruited by gangs to apply for jobs in companies and then steal documents. Fraudsters will pay about £5 for a document such as a bank statement.

The MORI poll, commissioned by shredding-machines maker Fellowes, also reveals a new drive by fraud gangs to target the bin bags and rubbish of companies and individuals to gather useful details.

A survey by Camden Council and credit reference company Experion reported that council staff had found that businesses have disposed of confidential client records in refuse bags and that some people had binned unwanted or expired credit cards.

'The point we're trying to get across is that they have to develop a shredding attitude,' said Tyrone Hill of Fellowes.