Researchers from around the world have come together for the 7th Winter Economic Crime Event
Experts in tackling economic crime have gathered for an international event hosted by the University of Portsmouth’s Centre for Cybercrime and Economic Crime (CCEC), exploring the shift from broad statements and commitments to practical actions that help prevent economic crime.
Held online on 15 January 2026, the 7th Winter Economic Crime Symposium, “Economic Crime Clichés: Pseudo-Policing and Crime Control”, brought together speakers from universities, civil society organisations, think tanks and practice to examine how well current approaches to fraud, corruption and money laundering are really working.
The event attracted more than 130 active participants from 36 countries, reflecting the truly global nature of contemporary economic crime challenges.
Organised by Dr Branislav Hock, Professor Mark Button, and Dr David Shepherd from the University of Portsmouth's Centre for Cybercrime and Economic Crime (CCEC), and supported by the Journal of Economic Criminology and the International Society of Economic Criminology, the symposium focused on when economic-crime control becomes more about box-ticking than about reducing harm.
Challenging economic-crime clichés
The keynote address was delivered by Professor Liz Campbell of Monash University, an expert on corruption, evidential practices, and corporate and organised crime. She looked at how policies, dashboards and training programmes can give the appearance of robust enforcement while sometimes doing too little to deter or disrupt sophisticated offenders.
Campbell highlighted the risk that complex corporate misconduct is increasingly managed through procedures and metrics that are easier to count than actual reductions in victimisation, raising questions about how success in economic-crime control should be defined and measured.
Secrecy, risk and responsibility
The first panel, “Secrecy & Economic Crime”, chaired by Dr Hock, explored how secrecy enables economic crime across borders and sectors. Panellists included Dr Ilaria Zavoli (University of Leeds), Dr Markus Meinzer (Tax Justice Network), Tuesday Reitano (Global Initiative Against Transnational Organised Crime), Dr Katerina Pantazatou (University of Luxembourg), Stephen Wilson (Coventry University/NCA) and Dr Michael Skidmore (The Police Foundation).
Drawing on research in tax justice, transnational organised crime and EU tax law, the session explored secrecy not just as a moral issue but as a measurable structural risk. Speakers discussed how unclear ownership structures, complex cross-border arrangements and fragmented data can frustrate investigations and push heavy responsibilities onto private-sector “gatekeepers” who often lack the tools and feedback they need.
The panel pointed to the need for more robust ways to assess and compare secrecy risks across jurisdictions and sectors, and for better information-sharing between authorities and regulated firms. This will help prevent more routine paperwork and instead lead to actionable intelligence.
Disrupting fraud through scambaiting
The focus shifted from structural issues to practical disruption with the session “Economic Crime Disruption - Scambaiting”, chaired by Dr David Shepherd from Portsmouth. The panel featured Professor Mark Button (University of Portsmouth), Dr Matthew Edwards (University of Bristol) and Neep, a scambaiting YouTuber and OSINT analyst.
Speakers explored how scam-baiting - engaging fraudsters to waste their time and gather intelligence - can complement more traditional enforcement measures. Professor Button, a leading expert on counter-fraud and private policing, set out how these disruptive tactics sit alongside victim support and wider fraud-awareness work.
Dr Edwards presented research on automatic scam-baiting, using data-science methods to scale up disruptive interactions with scammers and better understand how online fraud operations work in practice. Neep shared practitioner insights from tracking call centres, money mules and technical infrastructure using open-source intelligence techniques.
The discussion highlighted both the potential and the limits of citizen-led disruption, stressing the importance of working with platforms, law-enforcement agencies and victim-support services to ensure that scambaiting contributes safely and effectively to wider prevention efforts.
Building a global community on economic crime
The Winter Economic Crime Symposium is now in its seventh year and has become a regular meeting point for economic-crime scholars, practitioners, students and policymakers. Supported by the Journal of Economic Criminology and ISEC, it forms part of a wider ecosystem of teaching and research at Portsmouth, including the University’s MSc Economic Crime and specialist short courses.
The event underlined the growing scale and complexity of economic crime worldwide and the need for approaches that go beyond slogans to focus on evidence, impact and international collaboration.