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This website doesn’t have any facility to make reports but you can find contact details for all UK police forces by clicking here.
The location of the fraud offence will be the main factor in deciding which police force will investigate. However, this can be determined when you report the matter to your local police station or the force's fraud squad. Do bear in mind that most police forces prefer that any fraud complaints are made in the first instance to the local police station. Thereafter a decision may be made whether or not to refer it to a specialist team, or whether a specialist agency, such as the SFO, should be involved.
Internet-Related Fraud
Criminals involved in fraud have found the Internet another means for luring unwary victims. Many scams involving the Internet are variations on types of crime that are already familiar to police fraud specialists.
The international nature of the Internet means that any attempt to deal with Internet-related fraud will always be complicated by questions of jurisdiction. Laws vary from country to country and the UK police have no power to intervene directly against criminal material on computers in another country, or against criminals operating in another country.
Efforts to combat internet-based fraud and other internet crime depend on co-operation between law enforcement agencies in different countries and, vitally, upon the voluntary co-operation of the Internet industry. The UK has established a National High Tech Crime Squad to deal with technology related crimes that run across conventional police boundaries and require specialist investigation skills.
Major Internet firms in the UK have joined with the police to establish the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) which acts as a focus for removing illegal material from the Internet. It provides a hotline to enable Internet users to report material they believe may be illegal. The IWF assesses the material and then notifies the service provider and the police as appropriate.
Some UK police forces have established specialist computer crime teams to deal with crimes such as hacking and computer-based fraud. In general, if you think you are a victim of a fraud in which the internet has been used, you are advised to contact the local police in the same way as you would for other types of fraud.
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