Fraud cops seek access to centralised data

THE ATTORNEY General's Office is working out how it share data between the police, government departments, all areas of industry, and the public.

The body suggests establishing a National Fraud Reporting Centre and Intelligence Bureau to sift through the data to see if if can find out who is up to no good.

The Information Commissioner's Office has been advising police and industry how they might share data about suspected and actual frauds without riding roughshod over data protection law.

A spokeswoman for the ICO said it had been involved in discussions with the National Fraud Strategic Authority, which is setting up the data sharing scheme. According to the ICO, the routine sifting of share intelligence data shouldn't be allowed.

"There should always be good grounds for suspicion for information to be shared," she said.

Shared intelligence should not just be based on hearsay, she affirmed. There has to be evidence.

This would not necessarily prevent the NFRC from sharing suspicions about fraud raised by patterns of unusual behaviour.

Data protection concerns had helped delay the launch of the Payments Industry and Police Fraud Intelligence Unit (PIPJIU), which finally announced its arrival on 10 March, a year later than scheduled.

APACS, which took PR ownership of the scheme, said the delay had something to do with its unusual public-private remit, but refused to elaborate. The PIPJIU purports to do for the banking industry what the NFRC promises to do for all industries.

Running as part of the Metropolitan and City police forces' Dedicated Cheque and Plastic Crime Unit, the PIPJIU contains as its central plank the Fraud Intelligence Sharing System (FISS).

Industry was said to be concerned about sharing customer data with the police and government after a spate of recent data debacles, even though the Serious Crime Bill contained specific provisions to sanction it. µ