[dpwm]

I sometimes wonder how much of the UK economy is actually built on this fraud. The vast majority of these accounts are with UK institutions, it should be rather trivial to track down. Just the sort code alone tells you the bank and very often the branch.

I've heard it claimed that often the money gets transferred internationally from the shell account. Even so, the KYC for anti-money-laundering purposes should cover who owns the account it first lands in.

The most benign sounding explanation I've heard that sounds plausible is that privacy is a key selling point for UK financial services (I hear Switzerland isn't so private any more) and that main parties that investigate organized fraud (typically City of London police -- distinct from the Metropolitan police) know where their money's coming from.

Viewed from this perspective, every article on a couple being blatantly defrauded of their life savings is more like an advert for those international customers that might want a bank within a country that allows the whole banking system to take "data protection" to ridiculous levels.

[blibble]

very little I would imagine compared to the absolute vast amounts that travel around the financial system every day