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Action Fraud Bots
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Summary: Sirius ‘Open Source’ stole money from its own staff and British police isn’t doing anything on the matter (despite all the evidence being complete and unambiguous), so one is left with the impression that British businesses can basically get away with serious crimes, even against their own workers

TODAY I opened my E-mail client and I was greeted by a message or presented with a rather familiar message, which at first I thought was sent in error — or perhaps wrongly dated — because it closely resembled something that I had already received a month ago. As it turns out, Action Fraud operates a bit like a “bot”; instead of treating crime reports like reports of a crime (fraud) they seem to be treating them a bit like statistics and nothing suggests they’ve even looked into the report. They just waited a month before issuing a template response, basically telling something that cannot be true, as the video above explains. The troubling thing is, this signals to anyone in the UK (employers in particular) that pension fraud or embezzlement is OK because law enforcement agencies won’t even bother looking into complaints, even when the multiple UK victims and multiple UK perpetrator are all in the UK (no need to cooperate or work with entities outside the country).

I was going to phone Monday (after the Friday call fell on deaf ears^*) but sent on the weekend — both outside working days and outside working hours — was a seemingly automated message. Despite all evidence provided, there’s nothing to suggest anyone even looked into it and the message was almost identical to the first, hence akin to an automated reply, timed for 28 days after the report got filed. This is quite likely a very common modus operandi, basically programmed and wired into the system. This sort of gaslighting will shatter faith in the system of justice and accountability nationwide.

Reporting this or referring this to the ombudsman might not be practical, but at least we have real proof (as actual victims of a crime) that the police is failing taxpayers who pay cops’ salaries while protecting the abusers, who are cheating on their taxes (there’s a separate complaint already with HMRC).

This is the message sent to me a month ago, as not merely a complainant but one victim among several:

RE: [redacted]

Dear Mr schestowitz,

I am sorry to hear you have been a victim of crime. Thank you for taking the time to report to Action Fraud. Your report has been sent to the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau (NFIB) for review.

Experts at the NFIB will examine the information you provide. Where possible, the information is also matched against other available data in order to enrich and corroborate the details of the fraud. An assessment will be made as to whether there are viable lines of enquiry that would enable a law enforcement body, such as the police service, to investigate. The NFIB aim to provide you with an update on your report within 28 days.

Please be assured that by contacting us you are giving the police vital information they need to protect you and others. The information you have provided may be used to disrupt criminal activity and inform prevention advice and campaigns.

You should keep safe any evidence which you feel may be important. We continuously assess the content of individual and linked crime reports, if you set up an online account, you can use this to add additional information.

If you have any queries regarding this letter please visit www.actionfraud.police.uk/FAQ. If you would like more information on how to protect yourself from fraud and cyber crime, please see the guidance at www.actionfraud.police.uk/support_for_you.

We value your feedback, please visit this link and complete the survey:
www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/CSATREP

Yours sincerely,

Head of Action Fraud

For real-time alerts and prevention advice follow Action Fraud https://www.facebook.com/actionfraud/”actionfraud” or https://twitter.com/actionfrauduk “actionfrauduk”

Compare this text to what they sent hours ago (weekend outside working hours; probably 100% automated):

RE: [redacted]

Dear Mr schestowitz,

I am sorry to hear you have been a victim of crime. Thank you for taking the time to report to Action Fraud. Your report has been sent to the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau (NFIB) for review.

Experts at the NFIB examine the information you provide. Where possible, the information is also matched against other available data in order to enrich and corroborate the details of the fraud. The NFIB assess whether there are viable lines of enquiry that would enable a law enforcement body, such as the police service, to investigate.

On this occasion, based on the information currently available, it has not been possible to identify a line of enquiry which a law enforcement organisation in the United Kingdom could pursue.

Registered users of our service have the opportunity to update their report, so if you have additional information about your crime which you believe could change the assessment, please log in to your account and submit that information. We continuously assess the content of individual and linked crime reports; in the event that a line of enquiry is identified we will provide you with an update.

Please be assured that by contacting us you are giving the police vital information that they need to protect you and others. The information you have provided may be used to disrupt criminal activity and inform prevention advice and campaigns.

If you have any queries regarding this letter please visit www.actionfraud.police.uk/FAQ. If you would like more information on how to protect yourself from fraud and cyber crime, please see the guidance at www.actionfraud.police.uk/support_for_you.

Thank you for taking the time to report and helping us to make the UK a safer place.

We value your feedback, please visit this link and complete the survey:
www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/CSAT28D

Yours sincerely,

Head of NFIB

Notice how many of the paragraphs are identical (the first and second messages are similar). Is this the best a “civilised” police force has to offer^**? This kind of failure by the police seems to have become common knowledge by now and even the police chief in London (the Met) became outspoken about it earlier this month.

Some people might (at this point, in light of such experience) just go like, “what’s the point reporting it to the police? What’s even the point?? What are they gonna do about it???”

This is the hallmark of failing systems, including justice systems designed to selectively enforce the law for the few who hoard lobbyists, lawyers, and even politicians. Cops serve and protect them.

To sum up, in the above case Action Fraud does nothing, does not even indicate it looked into the report. No phonecall, nothing in the post, not even any follow-up questions in the interim. Kafka would have had a short novel about this kind of scenario.
_______
^* When I say that the Friday call fell on deaf ears I mean to say that nobody even heard me at all. I was on the line for about 12 minutes and paid for a call. I never got through the menu system to ever reach an actual human.

^** An anonymous friend agreed with this assessment and further commented: “The two automated messages indicate that 1) they are not doing anything and 2) it probably hasn’t even reached someone’s desk yet.”

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This entry was posted on Sunday, May 21st, 2023 at 8:25 am and is filed under Personal. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.