Thumbs up for 'Text a Fraud

In December, Old Ellerby resident June Eyre, 59, was found guilty at Hull Magistrates court of dishonestly claiming more than £6,000 in housing and council tax benefits. East Riding of Yorkshire council investigators discovered that over a four-year period Eyre had failed to declare her live-in partner as self-employed, and that they had bought a property together. Her downfall? An anonymous text tip-off from the local community. "Text a Fraud" is a new 24-hour messaging service that allows members of the public to text to their local authority details of suspected benefit fraud.

In use at the East Riding Fraud Investigation Unit since April 2005, the service is part of the council's overall fraud detection technology programme, using a telephone hotline, email and web contact forms. Andy Hardy, fraud investigation manager at the Benefit Fraud Investigations Service, says Text a Fraud has made a huge impact. Since its introduction, referrals have increased by 16% and have helped identify over £435,000 of fraudulently claimed benefit. Text messages now make up just over 10% of total referrals, with as many as 65 in the first eight months. From these, 42 cases have gone on to be investigated.

The service uses two-way messaging from Dialogue, a UK-based technology service provider. Text messages are converted into email format and fed into a central inbox. Paul Griffiths, UK managing director at Dialogue, says: "The email is given a reply path to send messages back to the mobile phone. We can then map the conversation by generating unique email addresses for each separate message." Given the restricted space available in text messaging, scarce detail is initially provided to the fraud team. Typical messages might be: "John Brown is living with Mary Smith and still claiming benefit." More information on the suspected fraud is needed to launch a case, however, so the system generates an automated SMS response thanking the informant for the tip-off and requesting authorisation to contact them for further information. "About 90-95% of leads are open to ongoing discussion," says Hardy.

Details supplied in such leads can be thorough, depending on the nature of the suspected fraud. Typical cases include failure to declare work, failure to declare partner moved into household, or failure to declare capital (bank accounts, property, etc). Anonymous sources Hardy is adamant that the source remains anonymous. "All we have is the number they are texting from," he says. "If we don't hear from them when we text back, or if they say they do not want to be contacted, we drop the lead." When push comes to shove, Hardy says the team would rather drop a case then reveal a source. However, he admits that to date this resolve has not been tested.

Other departments at East Riding council have since taken up the text messaging service. Council tax policy-holders can sign up for bill payment reminders, and the monthly recycling service now prompts residents to put their rubbish out the night before pick-up. Economically, the service is a gold mine. Charges for Text a Fraud are rock-bottom. Initial set-up costs just £120. The automated text back is free to the council and any subsequent texts after that are 4.9p each. Members of the public are charged the normal rate by their service provider. Text a Fraud also complies with efficiency and cost-saving directives set out in the 2004 Gershon review. And with referrals expected to rise in the coming year, that means more cash in the council's pocket.

To contact East Riding anti-fraud
email bfraud@eastriding.gov.uk
hotline: 01482 394 949
text: 07786 200850
online form: www.eastriding.gov.uk/webforms/main/redirect