Fraud and Scams Locations, Maps and Mapping Tools

There are many sources of information, one of course that is great at visualizing data is maps.

With the advent of Google Maps its easy to build your own online map to include in your website. http://www.mapbuilder.net/ is a very easy to use tool to create your own map just by entering a few fields, a map is created to use on your blog.

The Ordnance Survey has teamed with CIFAS last year to show have produced a special report on online fraud including a map on the risk of Identity Theft enabled by e-crime. The CIFAS Fraud Landscape document is here (pdf). This includes maps of  Victims of Impersonation in 2011 per thousand people by local authority area.

Another online map is provided by the police in the UK that allows you to view crime in your area or postcode. Unfortunately fraud is grouped under other crimes.

Crime Map Swindon

In terms of hot-spots, Slough has now overtaken London as the identity theft capital of the UK.

The Ordnance Survey have now teamed with CIFAS to offer mapping and GIS products and services to identify fraud hot-spots, to add mapping to any companies data, there is even a free version of OpenSpace that allows you to use the OS APIto link to your website or applications. There is a pro version that includes SLA and support for commercial users. There is a web widget version also that is a lot simpler to use to add maps to your blog or website.