City of London Police’s response to an article published in The Times today about Action Fraud

As we announced earlier this month, City of London Police, as national lead force for fraud, is in the process of procuring a new fraud and cybercrime reporting and analysis service. The current service was last procured in 2015 and since then, technology has advanced and demand has grown considerably.

Procuring a new service, which will replace Action Fraud and the NFIB system, will improve the service to victims, provide greater intelligence and insight to policing on fraud and cybercrime affecting communities, and allow for greater prevention and disruption at scale.

The contract with the current supplier was due to end in 2022 and it was always the intention to procure a new supplier to take on the service beyond this. As with all service procurements, this will take some time and we have extended the current contract past its end date in 2022 to ensure a smooth transition period.

There is no intention to scrap the Action Fraud service; the service provided by Action Fraud is continuing and at no point will there be no system in place to deal with victims of fraud. Victims will continue to have a service and the points of contact will remain the same.

Reports of fraud and cybercrime can continue to be made to Action Fraud by visiting actionfraud.police.uk or by calling 0300 123 2040.

The Times was issued with a full and proper response to include in their published article, along with answers to more specific questions, and we are disappointed that much of this was unused and the story is not representative of the force’s position.