U.K. Law Enforcement Impotent to Fraud

Cory Levine, Wall Street & Technology

A report from U.K. newspaper The Guardian reveals that financial institutions in the country are purposefully choosing not to report instances of online fraud and financial crime because they don't want to risk public exposure by law enforcement bodies that can do little or nothing about the crime - this from the mouth of a Metropolitan Police Detective Russell Day!

"Financial institutions are not reporting [these attacks] to law enforcement [agencies], and there could be two reasons for that. It could be one of consumer confidence, but I think that, to be honest, it is their lack of confidence in law enforcement to deal with it. And they are right. Because of the global nature of this, it doesn't fit in with our priorities," Day said.

The official figure of losses due to identity theft in the U.K. economy is about $3.35 billion, but that number is now expected to be higher factoring in information withheld by banks.

What's more astonishing than the act of keeping this information concealed is that law enforcement officials seem to agree with the practice. This begs the question: Are U.S. financial firms also sweeping online fraud information under the rug? And more important, is it because of flaccid law enforcement?