Draft27-12

Fraud Awareness
abuse of public’s goodwill:
CASHING IN
ON GRENFELL
How fraudsters tried at once to make
use of the Grenfell Tower fire was
among the topics aired at the launch
of Charity Fraud Awareness Week 2017
in London.
One of the speakers at the launch in
the City of London was Andy Fyfe,
Detective Chief Inspector at the
National Fraud Intelligence Bureau, part of the City of London Police.
As he said, fund-raising websites were set up at once after the fire in June
at the tower, pictured. One, as DCI Fyfe recalled, basically said, ‘send
money to my bank account’. The wish of people to help victims of the
fire had been so great that several thousand pounds were sent to the site
in its first hours; the man behind it was already withdrawing cash. As
the website was obviously fake and not meant to aid the victims, police
had it taken offline the same day. DCI Fyfe added that police work with
domain name companies in other cases, after tragedies or before major
sporting events, as fraudsters may seek to cash in on the goodwill of
donors. Fyfe said that 62 domain names to do with Grenfell Tower were
set up within a week of the fire; most were genuine, he added, but some
were by ‘opportunist crooks’. Between 75 and 90 per cent of fraud is
cyber-enabled, he told the gathering of charity sector and specialist fraud
prevention managers.
Merry
Christmas
Due diligence
The opening speaker, Alderman Alison Gowman, herself chairman of a
charity, the City Bridge Trust, also referred to Grenfell Tower, and the
spelling errors and misrepresentations in some accounts making appeals
for aid on online giving platforms. She also described her City trust’s
fraud prevention procedures and due diligence. She admitted that some
organisations are so stretched because of lack of funds that sometimes
their administration may be ‘slightly below par’; and that the managerial
and governance requirements of grant-making bodies can be ‘onerous’.
Gowman, a solicitor in a London law firm, ended her introduction to the
morning by saying that ‘no-one is immune from being targeted by fraud,
or caught up in the loss and anxiety that it brings’. As many victims of
fraud are elderly, through the official reporting line Action Fraud and the
City of London Police, with Age UK, a trial to raise awareness of scams
among the elderly is going on in four London boroughs, with a view to
rolling the scheme out city-wide.
Coalition
Also speaking were Helen Stephenson, chief executive of the Charity
Commission for England and Wales, who said that a coalition of charities,
the regulator, and professional bodies was the way to tackle the issue; and
Alan Bryce, the former police officer and former head of counter fraud
at the Audit Commission, now head of development and operational
intelligence at the Charity Commission. Former City of London Police
detective Dave Carter, now head of counter fraud management at the
British Council; and an external auditor, Pesh Framjee, head of non-profits
at the accountancy firm Crowe Clark Whitehill LLP also spoke; and
David Clarke, another former policeman, a trustee of the Fraud Advisory
Panel, itself a charity, led a question and answer session with the speakers,
to round off the launch. p
www.professionalsecurity.co.uk DECEMBER 2017
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a Happy New Year
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