Is it me, or is the news really as unnewsworthy as I think it is?

In recent days we have been hit with headlines galore that would leave the average person thinking the UK is in the middle of a major fraud epidemic.

The claims I have seen splashed all over the media this week alone include insurers being ripped off left, right and centre by ‘crash for cash’ scams; the government losing out on billions to benefit cheats; huge numbers of staff turning to selling the personal data of customers to crooks; and charities being increasingly targeted by conmen.

I hate to tell you this – but the reality is this kind of activity has been going on for a long time.

The only difference today is the UK economy has blown several fuses – and it can no longer afford to sustain these kind of unpalatable losses.

If we are honest, I think most of us would have said for a long time that Birmingham, Liverpool, Manchester and London were the worst places for certain types of crimes. And that’s precisely what the Insurance Fraud Bureau has reported to the world in relation to the ‘crash for cash’ scams it is currently attempting to curb…

The same can be said for the other crimes that are now making the news: they’re simply not new – and the scale of the crime has been known for a long time.

Rather than scare us all, surely the sensible thing to do would be examine how easy it is to cure some of the ills that are plaguing the public and private sectors?

Fraud prevention is a far easier task than rounding up the horse once it has bolted through the stable door – as I have been telling people for a considerable period.

There are some extremely cost-effective and user-friendly solutions out there that we deal with all of these problems – and more – should the powers that be really want to tackle the problem.

In my opinion, talking about the scale of the issues we face is the last thing we should be doing. Actions nearly always speak louder than words – so can we please see a collective effort in rolling up our shirt-sleeves and an end, for the time being, to the scare stories?