Specialist software has allowed online bank Egg to close the net
on the gang behind an Internet credit card scam.
Electronic evidence gathered by Egg during a six-month
investigation led to the arrest of three people during raids by the
National Crime Squad last week.
Police seized computer equipment, cash, drugs and documentation
during the raids, code-named Operation Skoda, in Milton Keynes,
Bedfordshire and Buckinghamshire.
Egg discovered the fraud in February when detection software
began to pick up inconsistencies in a series of credit card
applications made over the Internet.
Bogus applications were detected by Hunter, an off-the-shelf
package produced by MCL, which checks the accuracy of entries on
application forms, such as employers' names and individuals' dates
of birth, against a database.
Falcon, another off-the-shelf software package, enabled Egg to
identify suspected fraudsters that managed to evade the Hunter
system by gathering evidence of unusual spending patterns
Egg also developed its own software to identify common threads
among the fraudulent applications, such as multiple cards ordered
from the same PC, enabling police to home in on the gang.
Despite its recent success, Egg said it would continue to
improve its fraud detection software.
"We are achieving very good results with our fraud detection.
But we will continue to enhance them because the fraudsters change
their methods. We need to keep ahead of them," said Gary
Clifton-Marshall, operations director of Egg.
The National Crime Squad believes other Internet banks may have
been victims of similar fraud.
"This has been a very complex investigation involving organised
criminals who we believe have been using the Internet as a medium
for committing serious crime and for targeting the relatively new
Internet banks," said Detective Sergeant Mick Randall.
The three people arrested have been released on bail without
charge, pending further enquiries.