In partnership with UK Finance, leading financial institutions and Trading Standards, Thames Valley Police is launching the Banking Protocol within the force area from Monday 5 February.
The Banking Protocol is a multi-agency initiative aimed at safeguarding victims of fraud. Its purpose is to identify, at the earliest opportunity, members of the public who are in the process of being defrauded while conducting financial transactions at a bank, building society or post office, preventing their victimisation and minimising financial loss.
The Banking Protocol is already up and running in a number of other force areas. From March to the end of November 2017 over £11,444,438 in prevented fraud and 116 arrests can be directly attributed to the Banking Protocol, with 1,437 emergency calls placed and responded to. The average prevention per call equates to £7,964. Of those figures, just over £2.4million in prevented fraud and 15 arrests were achieved in November alone.
Offenders often encourage victims to attend their bank in person to either withdraw cash or transfer funds which places the money within the control of the offender. In some cases offenders will accompany their victims to the bank.
Thankfully in the majority of incidents bank and post office staff are able to identify that a customer is in the process of possibly being defrauded and will take appropriate steps to put a stop to the transaction and ensure that it is bought to police attention. Unfortunately in the past this has not always been the case and victims have continued to be defrauded out of huge amounts of money.
The Banking Protocol starts when a member of bank staff becomes suspicious of the circumstances surrounding a customer request or transaction. If they feel a fraud could be being committed, they will attempt to keep the victim with them and call 999 to inform the police.
If the offence involves a rogue trader element, our partners at Trading Standards will assist and in some cases also attend with police officers, with a possible view of taking on the investigation if appropriate.
The Banking Protocol offers empowerment when it comes to intervention and prevention of fraud offences by:
- Increasing bank staff knowledge of current fraud methods
- Ensuring consistency within the banking sector in recognising and questioning unusual transactions
- Standardising the method in how these concerns are dealt with
- Ensuring consistency in police reporting and police response
- Increasing banking staff confidence in the police response following their reports
The Banking Protocol is aimed at the most common fraud types in which these instances occur which include romance scams, rogue trader offences and courier fraud.
