Fraud Alert
Sterling Forums
Working with a wide range of Private and Public sector organisations, Operation Sterling has established innovative economic crime prevention business sector forums.
The MPS is not responsible for the content of external sites.
VSTAG (Vehicle Safe Trading Advisory Group)
VSTAG was established at the end of 2006 to combat vehicle advertising fraud which is a particular favourite of the on-line fraudsters. Significant numbers of people have sent money to people that they have never met for vehicles that they have never seen. Details of believed fraudulent adverts are shared amongst members in order to prevent fraud.
Member companies are Auto Trader, eBay, Exchange and Mart, Desperate Seller, Motors.co.uk and Pistonheads. As well as Operation Sterling and the Stolen Vehicles Unit of the Metropolitan Police, The ACPO Vehicle Crime Intelligence Service (AVCIS), Other organisations act as advisers to VSTAG, These include the Finance and Leasing Association, The Retail Motor Industry Federation, the Office of Fair Trading, Trading Standards, and others.
Prevention
of Fraud in Travel (PRFOFiT)
PROFiT was launched at New Scotland Yard on the 20th February 2009 and is a coalition of travel industry partners working together to eliminate fraud in the travel industry.
PROFiT is a not for profit organisation that is working with the whole travel industry including guest houses, hotels, airlines, travel agents, tour operators, cruise companies, train operators and bus and coach bodies. The founder members of PROFiT are: ABTA Ltd, BA Plc, The CAA, Co-operative Travel, Davenport Lyons, Global Travel Group, Hays Travel Ltd, Teletext Ltd, Travel Trust Association.
Property
Forum Acting for Safe Transactions
The Property Forum Acting for Safe Transactions sees major stakeholders in the property industry coming together to educate the industry about the pitfalls of fraud and to strengthen its anti-fraud measures. By improving industry standards and increasing co-operation PFAST seeks to raise consumer confidence by allowing informed choices to be made about buying or renting property. Current members include BOVIL, CB Richard Ellis (CBRE), Connels, King Sturge, LSL Property Services plc, Savills, the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS), The National Federation of Property Professionals, the Metropolitan Police and the Serious and organised Crime Agency (SOCA).
Safe Advice for Employment and Recruitment
The Recruitment Industry Counter-Fraud Forum, known as SAFER, is a non-profit making, industry wide, forum created to raise awareness about, and combating, criminal activities that may be attempted on those within the industry or through the services provided by the industry.
SAFER was set up by several of the major players in the recruitment and on-line recruitment industry including, Kelly Services, Manpower, Reed, Adecco, Hays, Impellam Group, Monster, Fish4, Jobsite, Total Jobs, Guardian Media Group, Executivesontheweb, REC and On-Rec representing wider interests have also been involved from the start. The Metropolitan Police and the Serious and Organised Crime Agency (SOCA) have provided crucial links into the various investigative and enforcement bodies.
Protecting
Employers From Insider Threats (PREFIT)
PREFIT is a network of Police, counter fraud and security experts and organisations, and background screening professionals. PREFIT organises briefings and workshops that bring together the employers who are victims of insider crime with the agencies and experts who have the know-how to combat it
Member organisations include: Control Risks Screening, Experian Background Checking, First Advantage, G4S Employment Screening & Validation, KPMG Forensic, Kroll Background Screening, The Security Watchdog, World-Check, the Metropolitan Police and the Serious & Organised Crime Agency (SOCA)
Virtual Office Forum The Virtual Office Forum was formed in September 2010. Its
members range from large corporate businesses to small enterprises, from
mail forwarding business to serviced offices. The aim of the forum is
to encourage industry best practice and design out crime.
Current forum members include; The Business Centre Association, Mailboxes
Etc, Regus, MWB, Davinci, Hold Everything, Virtual Office Group, The
Virtual Office Company (TVOC), W1 Office, Messagemail Ltd, OfficeFront
Ltd, National Fraud Authority, Westminster Trading Standards, Serious
Organised Crime Agency (SOCA), The City of London Police.
The
WSTA Fraud Prevention Unit
The WSTA Fraud Prevention Unit was launched in May 2011. It is run by the WSTA (Wine and Spirit Trade Association) and enables its members to share information on fraudulent activity, with a view to preventing it from spreading within the industry. The unit deals with cases of wine investment fraud, company hijack, overseas fraud, duty and VAT avoidance and counterfeiting. It provides WSTA members with a straight-forward mechanism for reporting suspicious activity to the relevant law enforcement agencies. The fraud prevention unit was set up with support from Operation Sterling and works with several other law enforcement agencies including HMRC, the Food Standards Agency, the Serious fraud Office and Trading Standards. For further information: