"The ACPO's first e-crime strategy which was published last week highlights the long term inadequate approach to e-crime and victims" says Jennifer Perry, managing director of E-Victims.Org. ACPO's (Association of Chief Police Officers) E-Crime Strategy paper says "one of the most significant challenges is under reporting". They go on to say "Of particular concern is the belief by some victims that the police will not act if they report computer-related crime".

Perry explains: "It is our experience, working with hundreds of e-victims, that most of the time police turn e-victims away.  They refuse to take a report, they don't provide any practical advice, and if they refer e-victims to another organisation it is often to the wrong one.

Internet users will one day be able to report fraud to The National Fraud Reporting Centre. It was supposed to go live last spring, but has been delayed until 2010. The ability for people to report online fraud is long overdue - the equivalent USA fraud reporting site has been operating for nine years.

The Fraud Reporting Centre will help the police determine, for the first time, the scale of online fraud - but it is primarily a statistics gathering exercise. There is no intention for the Centre to investigate someone who was scammed on a classified listing site. Hopefully it will be used to quickly take down fraudulent websites - although there has been no indication it will do this.

So victims of fraud may have somewhere to report their crime, sometime next year, but what about the other online incidents that people experience? When you lose money you are upset, but when people are being victimised daily by someone harassing and humiliating them online, the effects can be far more devastating.

The ACPO E-Crime Strategy does not help a victim whose boyfriend has taken intimate pictures of her and put them up on a porn site, or creates a whole website about her. Harassment is one of the most distressing and difficult problems to resolve, and it can't be solved by the Fraud Squad's mantra of "follow the money".

"Online harassment is a common example of a crime where we get frequent cries for help because the police simply refuse to take a report or assist the victim. Furthermore, they don't regard it as in their remit to inform victims that they can take the person to court themselves under Protection from Harassment Act 1997 and get a restraining order" says Perry.

"The First ACPO E-Crime Strategy is years too late and too little to help the average online user. It reflects the fact that e-crime has been and is a very low  priority for the Government - its initiatives are no more than a fig leaf to say they are doing something.

"Too little too late" is a cliché but in this case it is true. Prevention initiatives have failed to reach the right people with the right range of advice. It leaves organisations such as e-victims.org having to work harder to help victims pick up the pieces.