With more than 335,000 compromised cards and card numbers recovered, the DCPCU – a specialist police squad that tackles cheque and card fraud crime in the UK – has just marked its seventh anniversary.
The squad was launched on 29 April 2002 as a two-year pilot and, following the successful conclusion of this trial, it was established as a permanent policing unit with an ongoing brief to help stamp out organised credit/debit card and cheque fraud.
The unit is fully sponsored by the banking industry (to the tune of around GB pound 5 million per annum), and comprises officers from both the Metropolitan Police Service and the City of London Police – the acknowledged lead force within the UK for economic crime investigation – who work closely alongside banking industry fraud investigators.
What has been achieved to date?
Since its inception, the DCPCU has:
In conversation with SMT Online, detective chief inspector John Folan – current leader of the DCPCU and a serving City of London police officer – commented: “The unit’s track record over the past seven years speaks for itself. Our work continues to seriously disrupt the organised gangs responsible for this type of crime and, when coupled with fraud prevention savings in excess of GB pound 315 million, it’s clear the DCPCU has become a powerful asset in the fight against fraud.”
PIPJIU: enhanced intelligence capabilities
In the past year, the DCPCU has also benefited from the work of the Payments Industry and Police Joint Intelligence Unit (PIPJIU), itself established in March 2008. The PIPJIU is an enhanced intelligence unit that uses a secure and robust reporting mechanism to gather information on fraud. That information is then analysed and shared as appropriate among bank officials and police officers throughout the country.
The PIPJIU resulted from the amalgamation of the banking industry’s Fraud Intelligence Bureau (FIB) – the body that formerly distributed information between the banking industry and law enforcement throughout the UK – and the intelligence section of the DCPCU.
Public and private sector working together
Sandra Quinn, the PIPJIU’s director of corporate communications, told SMT Online: “The banking industry is delighted by the continuing success of the DCPCU. Its outstanding work provides an excellent example of how a joint public-private sector partnership can work together.”
Quinn added: “Not only does the unit stand on its merits as a successful model for other countries to follow, but it also provides real benefit when tackling the organised criminal gangs behind financial fraud.”
All change at APACS
APACS has been the umbrella name for the co-operative activity of banks, building societies and card issuers on payments and payment systems since the mid-1980s.
Of late, the organisation has been focusing on using names that better describe what the industry does (for example, the Cheque and Credit Clearing Company is the body which manages the cheque clearing system in Great Britain), and has launched the UK Cards Association as the leading Trade Association for the cards industry in the UK.
Over the next two months, there will be a move away from the use of the name APACS, but the team of people and what they do will remain the same (as will most of the contact details).
In its new guise, APACS will continue to provide the voice for the payments industry and talk about the way that businesses and individuals in the UK move their money – be that cash, credit and debit cards, cheques or automated payments (including online/phone transactions).
The organisation will also continue to lead the fight against banking fraud, and publish the payment industry fraud losses twice every year.
