I commend the National Fraud Reporting Centre (NFRC) for getting the hotline going. The helpline will allow individuals and small businesses to report cyber crime to a central agency, simplifying what would otherwise be a confusing process involving potentially several different government ag encies. A similar effort in the U.S., the Internet Crime Complain Center (IC3), currently allows individuals to file complaints of internet fraud through its website.

In both cases, setting up centralized agencies to manage reports of internet crime allows for greater cooperation among different law enforcement agencies—from local police to state and federal bureaus—so that large-scale operations of identity theft and phishing attacks, for example, can be more easily identified and addressed at the appropriate level. Also, by offering individuals one clear method of reporting internet fraud, as opposed to several, the hope is that more victims and informed third-parties will be inclined to report what they know.

As we’ve mentioned in previous posts, because most cyber crimes are committed across national borders, local law enforcement is severely limited in its ability to catch and prosecute individuals who commit such crimes. While continuing efforts are being made to stop these criminals, engaging the public about online fraud trends is a worthwhile step in helping raise awareness and hopefully prevent more people and businesses from becoming victims of Internet crimes.

Establishing programs such as the Action Fraud hotline and the IC3, can also build alliances and partnerships between individuals, groups and businesses that could benefit from sharing fraud information and intelligence. Collaborating with your peers to fight fraud is the basic concept behind iovation’s fraud management system, which provides a shared environment that allows online businesses to benefit from the thousands of additional resources, tools and experiences to better protect themselves from online fraud and abuse.