London’s Metropolitan Police force plans to work with First Data Corp.’s Western Union and online auction company EBay Inc. in a campaign to reduce consumer financial fraud.

Western Union, the world’s largest money-transfer provider, will distribute anti-fraud literature in the U.K. and train staff to detect and cancel improper transactions, said Peter Bucher, regional vice president. Police are discussing a similar program with EBay in the U.K., Detective Chief Superintendent Nigel Mawer said at a news conference with Bucher in London.

The Home Office estimates that consumer scams such as fraudulent Internet auction sites and fake lotteries bilk victims of 1 billion pounds ($1.75 billion) a year. Much of the money exchange happens via wire transfers, police said.

“It’s a major, major problem,” Mawer said today.

Police cited the case of a 73-year-old U.K. woman who lost 21,830 pounds in a lottery scam in 2004 after a fraudster contacted her by phone. She was told she had won 195,000 pounds and needed to send money to cover security, delivery and government paperwork costs before receiving her winnings.

Posted: 10|14|05 at 2:19 pm. Filed under: UK News.