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🇳🇴 Norway /Crime & Justice

Reported Five Fraud Attempts, Each Case Dropped

From Aftenposten · () Norwegian

Translated from Norwegian and summarized by DistantNews. Read the original for the full story.

At a glance

News Named sources Under investigation
  • Frank James Wilson reported five email-based fraud attempts against his employer in Norway this year, but police dropped each case without an investigation.
  • Oslo police said the reports lacked enough information to identify suspects or establish investigative leads, while Wilson argued that artificial intelligence could help detect links between cases.
  • Norway recorded about 31,500 fraud reports in 2025, with a 13% clearance rate for fraud cases, according to figures cited in the article.

Frank James Wilson has reported five digital fraud attempts against the Norwegian company where he works this year. All five cases were dropped, sometimes within two days and once on the same day they were reported.

I have a feeling that the information we provide is not being used well enough.

· Frank James WilsonWilson criticized how police handled the fraud reports filed by his employer.

The attacks came by email. Wilson, the company’s IT and security manager, collected details including bank account numbers, IBANs, payment recipients, telephone numbers, email addresses and organization numbers. Several attempts asked for money to be paid into a Norwegian account.

Police wrote in the dismissal notices that the cases had been dropped without investigation because they lacked sufficient information about the perpetrators. Oslo Police District confirmed the decisions. Gard Busterud, head of its prosecution section, told E24 that investigators had no information at the time of the reports that could identify a suspect or provide other leads.

This is where I think AI could make a big difference and automate much of the initial analysis.

· Frank James WilsonWilson argued that artificial intelligence could help connect details across fraud reports.

Wilson said artificial intelligence could automate much of the initial analysis, including checking whether the same account numbers appeared in multiple reports. He argued that a small case might form part of a larger fraud network and that rapid dismissals risked overlooking those connections.

The cases were dropped because, at the time of reporting, there was insufficient information to identify a perpetrator or other investigative leads that made it possible to proceed with the case.

· Gard BusterudThe Oslo police prosecution official explained why the reports were dismissed.

Police said all reports are registered in their case-management systems, and details such as account numbers and email addresses are stored. Busterud said this information can help identify links and patterns across cases, and that a dismissed case can be reopened. Police received about 31,500 fraud reports in 2025, a 7% increase from the previous year. Økokrim says more than three in four fraud cases are digital, while the fraud clearance rate stood at 13%, compared with 39% for all cases.

The information that is registered can help uncover connections between different reports and identify patterns across cases.

· Gard BusterudBusterud explained why reporting fraud remains useful even when a case is initially dropped.
About this summary

Originally published by Aftenposten in Norwegian. Translated, summarized, and contextualized automatically by DistantNews, with a note on how the source frames the story. Not individually reviewed before publishing. How this works.

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