Reporting scam emails to Met Police

[Peter Tomlinson]

Thanks, Peter. I had read only the summary of that document.

But of course what I'm looking for (and I think we had it for a few 
months) is pro-active action to block access to the phishing sites. 
Although I had read somewhere that such access really needs to be 
blocked within an hour of the messages starting to be sent to us targets...

However, in PlusNet's hands, Cloudmark is being used to inspect all 
outgoing mail, without knowing if it is malicious or an honest attempt 
to combat criminality.

Is the mere act of sending a phishing or other scam email a criminal 
offence? If so, we ought to be able to report it through actionfraud, 
but it appears that they don't want that.

Peter

On 04/12/2011 07:45, Peter Sommer wrote:
> The cyber security strategy document published on 25 November shows 
> the longer term aims of the NCSP:
>
> 4.33 In parallel we are taking action to make sure that it is simple 
> and straightforward for members of the public to report cyber crimes. 
> Of course this should include being able to do so online.
> 4.34 Over half of all police forces already provide a facility for the 
> public to report crime online, though these range from basic systems 
> for certain crime types to fully integrated crime reporting tools. We 
> will support forces to move to full online crime reporting by helping 
> them identify good practice.
> 4.35 People are already encouraged to report fraud, including cyber 
> fraud, through the internet, using the Action Fraud tool. We will make 
> it easier for people to do this by improving its accessibility and 
> functionality. Crime reports can currently take up to 30 minutes to 
> complete online. We will aim to reduce that time by a half.
> 4.36 As well as allowing the police to follow up directly on 
> individual crimes, better reporting will help build our intelligence 
> picture through the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau, improving the 
> targeting of enforcement resources and feeding into crime prevention 
> advice.
>
> These are, of course, ambitions...
>
>
> Peter Sommer
>
>
> On 03/12/2011 17:25, Peter Tomlinson wrote:
>> For some time the Met Police have been inviting the forwarding of 
>> scam emails to National Fraud Authority <email at actionfraud.org.uk>. I 
>> have just now sent them one, having not sent any for a while. PlusNet 
>> (which I use for sending, but I receive by clicking through to 
>> another ISP that hosts my incoming email service) has been very 
>> actively blocking reporting of them when Cloudmark has already picked 
>> up and banned the URL of the malevolent web site that the body of the 
>> email sends you to - but today one got through to actionfraud, and I 
>> got the response copied below:
>>
>>    Thank you for your email.
>>
>>    Reporting scam emails has changed and we are no longer taking emails
>>    through email at actionfraud.org.uk.
>>
>>    If you would like to report a scam email, a fraud or need guidance
>>    on fraud and how to protect yourself, please go to
>>    www.actionfraud.org.uk. Action Fraud is the UK's national fraud
>>    reporting centre.
>>
>>    To report a crime that is not fraud related please contact your
>>    local police. Police force contact details can be found at
>>    www.police.org.uk.
>>
>>    To make an anonymous crime report please phone Action Fraud on 0300
>>    123 2040.
>>
>>
>
>