CIFAS - The UK's Fraud Prevention Service, is a not-for-profit membership association representing the private and public sectors. CIFAS is dedicated to the prevention of fraud, including staff fraud, and the identification of financial and related crime. CIFAS operates two databases; the CIFAS National Fraud Database and the CIFAS Staff Fraud Database.

CIFAS has over 250 Member organisations spread across various business sectors. These include financial services, retail, telecommunications, customer service and call centres and the public sector. Although at present CIFAS Members are predominantly private sector organisations, public sector bodies may also share fraud data reciprocally through CIFAS to prevent fraud

Fraud

In criminal law, a fraud is an intentional deception made for personal gain or to damage another individual; the related adjective is fraudulent. The specific legal definition varies by legal jurisdiction. Fraud is a crime, and also a civil law violation...

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Members share information about identified frauds in the fight to prevent further fraud. CIFAS is unique and was the world’s first not-for-profit fraud prevention data sharing scheme. Since CIFAS was founded, CIFAS Members have prevented fraud losses to their organisations worth billions of pounds by sharing fraud data.

CIFAS aims to:

• Build on crime prevention data sharing to encompass both the private and public sectors in the public interest.
• Protect the interests of CIFAS Members from the actions of criminals by pooling information on fraud and prevented fraud.
• Ensure that innocent members of the public who are the victims of fraud are not prejudiced by the misuse of their identities and documentation.

CIFAS Publications (Trend Reports)

All the following reports are available on the CIFAS Website.

Fraudscape

The latest version of Fraudscape examines and assesses the fraud cases identified by CIFAS Member organisations during 2009 and 2010 to ascertain any key differences between the typology of the frauds seen in 2010 compared with 2009. It looks at all frauds identified by the type of fraud committed and the product involved.

Staff Fraudscape

Staff Fraudscape examines and assesses the staff fraud cases identified by CIFAS Member organisations during previous years and 2010 to ascertain any key differences between the typology of the frauds seen. It looks at all frauds identified by the type of fraud committed and the product involved.

Digital Thieves

In Digital Thieves, CIFAS and a wide range of fraud prevention experts have combined not only to focus on identity fraud and account takeover, but also to explain specifically the online dimension to these crimes. There are tips on staying safe online and protected from fraud; stories from the victims of fraud; a series of maps laying bare the true, alarming, scale of these crimes; an examination of how businesses can fall victim; and articles looking at how internet crime has developed and what may, or may not, happen next.

The Internal Betrayal

In The Internal Betrayal, CIFAS and a wide range of fraud prevention bodies and experts have combined to examine the facts about staff fraud. This report looks at the steps that organisations can take in order to combat the threat successfully.

From the recruitment process, expenses claims, whistleblowing and corruption, to ensuring that the right anti-fraud philosophy is present at all organisational levels, you will find in this report all that you need to know about combating the threat of staff fraud.

For Individuals

CIFAS Protective Registration is a service that enables individuals to seek protection against possible impersonation attempts when they have good reason to believe that their details might be used by a fraudster. For example, there may have been a burglary or a violent crime where personal documents have been stolen, and some requests follow a police or Citizens’ Advice Bureau recommendation. Applicants are required to supply to the CIFAS Protective Registration team details such as employment, telephone number, and the length of time at their address. This information is held in strictest confidence and is not used for any other purpose.

CIFAS Member organisations dealing with requests for credit or other services from someone who has taken out CIFAS Protective Registration will be alerted to the need for caution. During their routine checks, they will see a CIFAS warning flag marked ‘Protective Registration’ against the individual’s name and personal details which indicates that he or she has been recorded on the CIFAS database for their protection. CIFAS Members when undertaking a search against an individual’s name and personal details will see "CIFAS - DO NOT REJECT - VALIDATION REQUIRED".

As a result of the entry, CIFAS Members will undertake additional checks to make sure that the applicant is genuine and not a fraudster trying to commit identity theft. This offers reassurance that the identity of an individual (who has taken out Protective Registration because they are at heightened risk of identity theft) is protected against further fraudulent applications in his or her name.

For Organisations

Similarly to the above, CIFAS provides a service to help organisations to protect consumers and employees from identity fraud where there has been a data security breach. When a laptop bearing customer details is stolen, or payroll or other information is intercepted, for example.

The service is known as the CIFAS Bulk Protective Registration Service. It enables organisations to co-ordinate and submit to the CIFAS database, as a batch, the details of all those individuals who require protection. Before doing so, in accordance with the Data Protection Act, the organisation must inform its customers or employees of the data breach and that their personal data is being processed by CIFAS to complete the Protective Registration.