From today(Monday)'s 'Metro:'


Only call 999 if you've lost over £999

BY JOHN HIGGINSON

So many people are becoming victims of Internet fraud that some police
forces have begun refusing to investigate unless more than £1,000 has
been lost.
The secret threshold has been introduced because detectives are
overwhelmed by the huge rise in electronic crime, ranging from fraud
and child pornography to hacking and computer viruses.
The value threshold for fraud investigations was exposed by online
auction house eBay, after complaints from victims when the police
failed to act.
Gareth Griffith, eBay's British head trust and safety, told a House
of Lords committee: 'When we try to get police involved, sometimes
they will say, "We'd love to help you but if it is not over 'X'
threshold of thousands of pounds, we cannot".
'Users come back to us saying the police are not interested because
it's only a £500 laptop.
The failure to prosecute offenders was causing the public real
harm, eBay claimed.
Sources in the online retail industry said the threshold level
varied between forces in different parts of the country.
While the decision of whether to investigate is taken by police,
judgment on whether a case is strong enough to bring to court is made
by the Crown Prosecution Service, which said it did not have
thresholds for the value of frauds.
In January a Scotland Yard report admitted that because of the
scale and the international nature of e-crime, the police could not
investigate all offences as a matter of course.

[Richard]