More police trained on web fraud

Extra police officers in Devon and Cornwall have been trained up to tackle online fraud with the help of internet auction website eBay.

Over the last seven years a number of officers have been sent to eBay's headquarters in Surrey for training.

However, this year the company has sent trainers out to police forces across the UK.

They have trained a total of 301 staff from Devon and Cornwall - the most of any police force in the UK.

Stolen goods

The course involved teaching officers to navigate the site to help gain contact details for online fraudsters.

Det Con David Wright, who specialises in network investigations for Devon and Cornwall Police, said the site was used as a possible source to help trace stolen goods and had improve detection rates.

The course also trained officers to analyse user-profiles and trading history to support their investigations.

"For the past seven years we have been sending officers to eBay's headquarters in Surrey for training, but they decided to roll out the training programme to more people and came down to train staff in Exeter," he said.

We can offer a wealth of evidence to assist police investigations

Richard Ambrose, eBay

"Online fraud is growing more and more common, so it is essential that we do as much as we can to help combat it."

According to eBay, more than 15 million people in the UK visit the site each month and this year the company has helped police in more than 7,500 national investigations - leading to the arrest or conviction of almost 200 people.

Richard Ambrose, head of trust and safety for eBay UK, said: "Trust is the engine of eBay, and... we have a duty to make it as safe and secure as possible.

"We do this by working closely with law enforcement agencies like the police and trading standards.

"We can offer a wealth of evidence to assist police investigations and even provide a forensic financial 'footprint' of a suspected fraudsters' online activities.

"This can prove very useful when it comes to law enforcement agency efforts to seize the proceeds of crime."