NEWS
OFT Launches Scams awareness campaign in Wales
Wales in campaign to get smart against scammers
On Friday 2nd February the OFT launched a scams awareness campaign in Wales in a bid to highlight the techniques used by scammers to con UK consumers out of £3.5billion each year.
The campaign, which runs during the week of 22 February in Wales, aims to give consumers the knowledge and skills they need to recognize, report and stamp out mass-marketed scams.
The most common ones at present are:
1. Bogus holiday clubs
2. Prize draw and sweepstake scams
3. Miracle health and slimming cure scams
4. Clairvoyant mailings
5. Fake foreign lotteries
For the first time the OFT, in partnership with local authority Trading Standards Services and Consumer Direct, is launching a targeted campaign in Wales.
Highlights of the campaign include regional radio adverts, and roadshows in shopping centres. There will also be a major campaign surrounding lottery and prize draw scams directly involving Welsh residents. Details of planned events and case studies will also be available on request from the OFT.
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Recent research by the OFT revealed that every year one in fifteen people (3.2 million adults) fall victim to scams across the UK. The average amount lost per scam is £850.
• Welsh residents make up nine per cent of all UK scam victims. Wales has accounted for 13 per cent of total UK targets and victims of miracle health scams, 11 per cent of property investment scams and 11 per cent of pyramid selling/ chain letter scams.
Mike Haley, head of Scambusters at the OFT, said:
'Scammers are finding more ruthless and sophisticated ways to con the public of money by preying on their hopes and fears. This campaign is an attempt to get smart against the scammers who are ruining residents' lives in Wales. Scams affect not only individual victims, but their families and communities, and can lead to debt, depression and health problems. Though anybody can be conned, it is always the most vulnerable who end up suffering the most.'
For more details click onto www.oft.gov.uk
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