SWIZ CAPITAL

London tops credit card fraud list but sleepy Shildon is 2nd

FRAUD TOWN: Quiet Shildon
FRAUD TOWN: Quiet Shildon

By Guy Basnett, 06/09/2009

TODAY we pinpoint the country's credit card crime hotspots, where fraudsters are fleecing MILLIONS of pounds from unsuspecting victims.

Amazingly, one of the worst turns out to be the sleepy former mining town of Shildon - where more than a QUARTER of all money spent online comes from card fraud.

A shocking 26.8 per cent of all transactions made in the tiny County Durham town (population just 10,000) used stolen card details.

Crimes of this kind can destroy whole businesses whose goods are plundered by highly- organised gangs of fraudsters.

Experts reckon that in the last year alone more than half-a-billion pounds has been lost to fraudsters in Britain - that's around £1,000 a MINUTE.

The News of the World linked up with fraud prevention experts The 3rd Man Group to investigate where the money goes, checking every postcode in Britain.

It soon became clear that the biggest target was Thamesmead, an area of London known to be favoured by West African gangs.

Part of this deprived area just south of the Thames carries postcode DA18 and there 3rd Man found 34 per cent of the total spent online was fraud - the highest tally of the lot.

Its neighbouring SE28 area was little better at 26.34 per cent and next door's SE2 came fourth in our list with 24 per cent.

Police say West African gangs working from "fraud houses" are to blame.

A source told us: "Thamesmead is often referred to as Little Lagos. And it's rife with credit fraud. The gangs ship their own people here, putting them up in houses to create a network trading in card details and fraudulently buying expensive goods."

Also high in the crime table is EC1V, near the City of London, and Islington, where 20 per cent of spending was fraud. Close behind came NG7 (Radford, Nottingham) 18.9%, CV1 (Spon End, Coventry) 18.3% and EN5 (High Barnet, London) 17.6%, M11 (Openshaw, Manchester) and EC1R (Finsbury and Clerkenwell).

Andrew Goodwill, director of The 3rd Man Group, said: "Our evidence shows where stolen card details are being used by fraudsters to buy goods. Small companies are hit hard by the losses which can easily ruin them."

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