Action Fraud Reviews 

Action Fraud is basically a recording service introduced by the government to take some of the pressure off the police. NFIB also don't have investigative powers. The standard e mail that you will receive telling you that 'it has not been possible to identify a line of enquiry which a law enforcement agency in the UK could pursue' is very likely untrue. It certainly was in my case. A crime had been committed and I had details of the offender and the location of the property involved! When I challenged the e mail, I received a reply from someone (these e mails are not signed) saying 'we will be unable to provide you with further information concerning the decision made due to the sensitive nature of police work...'
What they are really saying is, we know you're a victim of crime and that there is sufficient evidence to arrest the offender but the police don't have sufficient (or properly trained) officers to investigate these offences. (The e mail stated that they receive 50,000 reports a month!)
Also, unless there is admissible, reliable and substantial evidence to ensure a realistic prospect of conviction then the Crown Prosecution Service will not even authorise an offender to be charged.
Basically, it all comes down to ££££, and in the meantime these criminals are laughing, with impunity, all the way to the bank!

Don't bother with them, they are absolutely useless. Again another service funded by us tax payers which do not help the ones funding them. Just as much frauds as the ones being reported to them.

I was robbed. I was a fool. Somebody persuaded me by phone to transfer money to their account and to buy items from an Internet site. I had the individuals name, their bank account details and the address of the sites all of which I gave to these people. I contacted the Internet sites, they confirmed they had details of the buyers and the addresses that were used but they would only provide these to the police

Action Fraud did NOTHING for three weeks and after that time , without providing any information on what they had done, sent a standard email saying that they could do nothing. It was IMPOSSIBLE to talk to anyone, email anyone at any time .

Action Fraud is a complete waste of time

Cost £8 phoning them. They do nothing. In fact they hold you on the phone as long as possible.

Action fraud won’t investigate my fraud or give a reason why not . They did however send a two police officers to my house to see how I was ,however they knew nothing about financial crime and just wanted to know who my next of kin and local Dr is .

Completely useless company. You've got a better chance of getting blood from a rock than getting these people to investigate your fraud claim. I was a victim of a fraud scam and i immediately passed
On all the information to these people including names, their address and what house number the scammers lived in and I sent all the screenshot but they told me the scam couldn't be investigated. No wonder scammers aren't scared of committing these crimes. God help us.

Inaction Farce betraying victims more than fraudsters

I lost £33,620,30 - provided WhatsApp numbers, crypto wallet addresses, TXIDs and some foreign bank details. No action - auto reply

‘ it has not been possible to identify a line of enquiry’ - This is what <95% of fraud victims after a month.
(30-40% of all reported crimes in England and Wales are fraud)

Even scammers are more forthright than Action Fraud: At least those crooks honestly practice what they profess: defrauding others - while Action Fraud falsely promotes virtue by pretending to be helpful to scam victims when in fact they almost never do anything. Each AF officer should be ashamed of themselves every day and deserve to be scammed out of their life savings pension after retiring from Action Fraud - only to realise that, even if they report to Action Fraud, their former colleagues will do nothing but send a template reply. No officer in this organisation deserves even one penny of tax payers’ money.

At this point, Action Fraud might be passively encouraging people to scam others, since the UK is a perfect haven for getting away with no consequences. Those Cambodian scam compound lords would be laughing at these clowns.

Answer this one question: Why don’t they even have a payment type category for crypto transfers? And the absurdity of asking for scammers’ addresses, vehicle numbers, social media, Skype is beyond comprehension. Do they think we are in 2008 still?

Even the fraud type categories on their site are pathetically outdated and unhelpful. I feel bad for Brits who have to tolerate this nonsense.
(I was trying to find the fraud category of ‘task-based job scam’ on their site - It is nonexistent even though the scam has been operating since late 2022 in the UK. Wake up and do your work for a second!!! Clue in!!!)

Another corrupt taxpayer funded organisation! You supply evidence and proof that you've been scammed and these corrupt a*holes send you a message back stating that there's no action to be taken due to lack of evidence. I've even told them to contact my bank directly and see how many customers are facing the same issues as I am and they ignore everything and allow these corrupt companies to continue scamming people. I wouldn't waste any time filing a complaint as you'll receive the answer. We can't investigate because they are funding us!

Don’t waste your time. Company making fraudulent invoices to exploit a disabled woman. Action fraud can’t do anything despite having the businesses details.
I got endless calls from staff who aren’t even investigators… they were some sort of moral support? Idk. I just found them annoying and they hadn’t even read my report properly nor understood it.

The DVLA tell you to report the fraudulent removal of a vehicle grom its database to Action Fraud. I tried. Signed up, logged in, but their rigid form wouldn't accept it, because I am not a victim. Twice I tried. No luck so I hit chat. David joined and he told me to advise the DVLA and report it online or to Action Fraud via a number. I explained I had tried online it didn't work, and that DVLA had told me to come to you. I told him I was extremely ill and couldn't do this. I asked 'aren't you Action Fraud? By which i meant why couldn't he take the details down which I'd already given. All he said is he could only deal with fraudulent sales of vehicles. My issue goes unreported. Lazy staff, inflexible systems, bad attitude, not customer service, not encouraging. Fraud yes, ACTION NO!

Sorry to say, a complete waste of time.
Something purchased through Vinted.
You never get the seller's full details.
Item was fake. Vinted would not help. Seller won't help. Payment goes through automatically.

Reported to Action Fraud. Seemed to take a long time to get any response.
In the end, "On this occasion, based on the information currently available, it has not been possible to identify a line of enquiry which a law enforcement organisation in the United Kingdom could pursue.".

So the "line of enquiry" of Vinted, is ignored by Action Fraud. They could contact them, who would contact the seller.

They refused.
They have a Survey thing that goes out - that failed too!

Honestly, waste of time, and no wonder it's 1.2* for their 'help'. You report fraud. You state the company through which this happened. They ignore, or they don't want to persue it.

Terrible experience. Shame on them.
Finally, when you do get upset and want to ask them about this, there is NO means to do that.
When you call them, and they say to give them a call if I have any further info - and you state you have given them the company who did this, and they just won't help.

Really genuinely - you think this would be a 4-5* organisation. 1.2* to fight fraud is appauling.

I spent over an hour on the phone to them, although the person dealing with me was polite and helpful, I cannot help feeling that it was a complete waste of my time. After 2 weeks I got a phone call from them, here's me thinking 'ooh good, an update on their progress' WRONG., it felt as if they were at a loose end and just rang me to pass the time of day. Complete shambles, they are no help and no protection from fraudsters.

I want to take the time to write a very genuine and heartfelt review for Chris from Action Fraud, because the help and support he gave me today was absolutely outstanding.

When I first called, I was extremely upset, stressed, and overwhelmed about a difficult situation involving my dad. I honestly didn’t know where to turn or what steps to take, and I was in quite a panicked state. Chris spent over an hour on the phone with me, patiently listening, reassuring me, and most importantly giving me clear and detailed guidance on exactly what I needed to do.

He didn’t just rush me or read off a script – he explained everything thoroughly, step by step, in a way that I could understand, even when I was feeling flustered. He made sure I felt supported, that all my questions were answered, and that I left the call with confidence about the next steps I needed to take for me and my dad.

His patience, kindness, and attention to detail made a huge difference to me at a time when I really needed it. I honestly don’t know how I would have coped without his help today.

I truly appreciate everything he did, and I really think he deserves recognition for the way he handled my case. People like Chris are the reason services like Action Fraud make such a difference to people’s lives. If anyone deserves a raise or acknowledgment for going above and beyond in their role, it’s him.

Thank you so much, Chris – you turned a very stressful situation into something I now feel I can manage.

They are the most useless people. The police in the UK have gotten so bad that they give action fraud a contract who are worst than them. Slow to operate, they ask you more questions than the criminals.

NO Action!
With more and more online crime taking place, it's a national failure that ActionFraud is so useless. You have more chances of winning the national lottery than you do in recovering any losses or catching criminals or stopping criminals with this group. Nobody seems to have any power to do anything about crime in this country and by design guess who losses out in this scenario?

I’m inclined to agree with others sentiments on lack of urgency and responsibility. You have to arrange and send all the details of the crime. The immediate response is we’re very busy and the minimum response time will be 6 weeks. Initially this started with the local police who referred it to Action Fraud. When I suggested I might go and sort it myself I was immediately notified that it would be reported and I’d be liable to prosecution. That response was almost immediate!
I don’t know why we pay taxes for this, the scammers know they going to get away with it. So as others have mentioned you’re on your own and powerless to do anything.

Was not possible to log the fraud here, I am m other sure what is for but its pretty useless for reporting online

can not set up a memorable word ... it appears broken. suggests a phone number... I'm deaf! Don't bother with this rubbish site

Absolute waste of time. Suspect phone number, bank details, address etc. reported but police won't investigate due to lack of "lines of inquiry". What a joke.

I was the victim of a very sophisticated credit card fraud a few weeks ago. I reported this to Action Fraud expecting it to be referred to the Police as a) it was clearly part of a much bigger scam based on the sophistication of what had transpired b) The scammers had a lot of details about me including my new address where I had resided for less than 8 weeks and c) I had located the retailer who they had tried to use my card with and therefore they would have had a delivery address for the goods. However, I have been told by Action Fraud that "On this occasion, based on the information currently available, it has not been possible to identify a line of enquiry which a law enforcement organisation in the United Kingdom could pursue." No wonder Fraud is costing this country so much each year. Totally and utterly inept. If I could give no stars I would.