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10 percent of Brits affected by scams

March 2, 2010 by admin  
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It has been revealed by the Office of Fair Trading that around 10 percent of Brits have been affected by scams in the past. This equates to around four million adults who have said that they have responded to what turned out to be a scam. Worryingly whilst 50 percent of those that had fallen for a scam had lost more than £50 to the fraudsters around 5 percent had lost more than £5000.

Over recent years scams have become more elaborate and more prevalent. Some scams are operated purely online, using the power of the Internet to draw people in and extract personal information from them whilst others are done by post or phone, including the many postal scams that are often targeted at the elderly and vulnerable people. In the past year 73 percent of adults have received a scam email according to the Office of Fair Trading.

What has been described as a ’scamnesty’ is being launched by the Office of Fair Trading, and this will involve consumers dropping in scam post at designated boxes in public areas or dropping scam emails into an online bin.

Teams have also been set up across the UK to deal with these scams at a cost of £7.5 million. In the meantime the police authorities and the have recently seized a list that includes the details of around ten thousand people that was being shared by fraudsters.

In a statement an OFT official said: “Scammers are using ever more sophisticated and cunning tactics to dupe people out of their cash. We want people to recognise the warning signs, and feel confident enough to seek advice from friends or family or from Consumer Direct.”

Tags: fraud, Spamming, Advance-fee fraud, office of fair trading, Ethics

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