AN EAST Lancashire MP has revealed how he had thousands of pounds stolen from his bank account after falling victim to credit card fraud.

Pendle MP Gordon Prentice said that he lost £3,500 after his card was copied with the use of a ‘skimming’ device, which can retrieve confidential information contained on its magnetic strip.

His bank reimbursed the money after Mr Prentice alerted them when he logged onto his internet banking and noticed the withdrawals.

But Mr Prentice said that the bank had refused to tell him about the progress of its fraud investigation.

He is now campaigning to force banks to publish a ‘league table’ detailing annual levels of credit card fraud together with prosecutions and convictions from the crimes.

Mr Prentice said: “I am getting no feedback from my bank. The shutters have come down.

“This is a huge problem that is touching thousands of people every day, and we need an urgent debate on this issue of great concern.

“I would like banks to be more open about the whole process because by not releasing this information it gives people more scope to defraud the system.”

Currently banks procedures on what information is given to customers differ but once the customer is re-imbursed the bank is the victim and only they can make the decision to report the matter to the police, according to APACS, the industry’s payments association.

But Mr Prentice said: “What I found absolutely astonishing was that there was no contact from the bank telling me what was happening with the investigation.

“I don’t know if someone had been tracked down or if they were being prosecuted for the fraud.

“This is information I would like to have because if it could be a way of preventing it happening again if we know what happened.

“I find it so frustrating to not know where it happened. If people are going to do fraud by skimming at petrol station or shops the place needs to ensure staff and the machines are monitored.

“At the moment it is almost like a victimless crime for the people who are running these frauds.”

Mr Prentice, who raised the matter in the House of Commons last week, said that he believed his card had been skimmed when he made a payment in Yorkshire in May.

He said: “I logged on to my internet banking account to look at my account and was astonished to find that £3,500 had been withdrawn from my account.

“I got in touch with my bank and they told me there would be a fraud investigation.

“I said I want this money re-instated.

“They said it would take three or four days if nothing untoward happened they would put the money back into my account.”

The police’s ‘Dedicated cheque and plastic crime’ unit, was set up in 2002 to combat credit card fraud and is funded by the banking industry. It was responsible for £107 million in estimated fraud savings in 2007 and had 94 per cent conviction rate.

But the unit only deals with those matters that are referred to it by banks, a spokesperson for APACS said.

With over a million reports of card fraud last year it would be impossible to report every incident to the police, the representative added.

She said: “Whether the police become involved depends very much on the incident and the amounts involved.

“Each bank will have different procedures depending on the level of money involved.

“The bank may fully refund the customer but choose not to share the information if it is part of a wider investigation.

“Banks do offer customers general tips on card crime prevention.

“It is the police's decision as to whether they can prosecute.

“But the general line in the industry is that we are keen the perpetrators be prosecuted.”

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