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Scamnesty 2010 - 25th January 2010
A nationwide Scamnesty campaign by the Office of Fair Trading, which aims to help end the scourge of mass marketed scam mailings in the UK, is coming to South Gloucestershire this February.
Nearly half of the UK adult population has been targeted by a scam. Every year, 3.2 million adults – one in 15 people – across the country fall victim to a scam involving deceptive unsolicited mailings, phone calls, or emails, which are designed to con victims out of their cash. UK consumers lose around a staggering £3.5billion to scams every year.
Scamnesty 2010 calls on the people of South Gloucestershire to fight back against the fraudsters by collecting any scam mailing they receive and dropping them into designated Scamnesty bins located in all One Stop Shops and most libraries. A full list of locations can be found at www.southglos.gov.uk/scamnesty.
Last year the campaign revealed that the top 5 mass marketed scam mailings in the UK at that time were deceptive sweepstakes, misleading prize draws, fake clairvoyants, bogus foreign lotteries and ‘miracle’ health cures.
The Scamnesty bins will provide valuable new intelligence to the Office of Fair Trading and local authority Trading Standards Services and help inform future investigations which will prevent others from being scammed.
Mark Pullin, Head of South Gloucestershire Council Trading Standards and Licensing, said;
‘Every day people are at risk from unscrupulous fraudsters who want to con them out of their cash. We are aware of a number of local victims who have lost hundreds of pounds to such mailings. By dropping your scam mailing into your local Scamnesty bin you will help provide crucial intelligence to support Trading Standards and the Office of Fair Trading stopping these scams which bring misery to millions of people every year.’
If you think you have been the victim of a scam, or you suspect a scam, call Consumer Direct for clear, practical advice on 08454 04 05 06 or visit www.consumerdirect.gov.uk/scamnesty.
Consumers can report all types of scams at https://secure.consumerdirect.gov.uk/reportascam.aspx on the Consumer Direct website. Consumers can also report online scams to the ‘virtual bin’ on this website during February.
