Beware scam prize draws and scratchcards
In Neighbourhood Watch Week, Coventry and Warwickshire residents are warned to beware of prize draw ‘winner’ letters, emails and phone calls and ‘free’ scratch cards telling them they have won prizes - or potentially face losing anything from a few pounds to many thousands of pounds!
Warwickshire County Council and Coventry City Council Trading Standards Officers will be talking about scams, rip-offs and rogue traders at a NHW event to be held at the Allesley Hotel in Coventry on Thursday 17th June in support of Neighbourhood Watch Week. The event will also cover other crime related issues.
Organizer and Co-ordinator for Emscote St Nicholas Neighbourhood Watch, Neil Kenton said:
“The issue of scam prizes and bogus scratch cards, sent prolifically through the postal system and into the homes of our community, is one that concerns many of our residents.
This type of constant, indiscriminate and predatory marketing has an impact on the elderly and vulnerable, who may be taken in by promises of winning prize money and gifts. Typically most victims of scams like these are aged over 65.
Replies to these scams often result in the victim disclosing personal information on open postal reply cards and paying out a lot of money in expensive rate phone bills as the only means of contact and redress to a company that changes its postal identity at every turn.
This NHWS has taken a stance and logged and reported the scam attacks on our area and reported them to Trading Standards. We want to highlight community resilience against this type of crime during Neighbourhood Watch Week and at the event we are holding on 17th June.
Coventry and Warwickshire Trading Standards Services receive hundreds of complaints a year from local residents concerning scam prize draws and ‘free’ scratchcards.
Warwickshire County Councillor Richard Hobbs, Portfolio Holder for Community Protection said: “Some of the consumers we hear from must think they are the luckiest people on earth – if all the prize winner notifications they have received are to be believed.
"Fortunately most of the consumers we speak to either know or suspect that they are the targets of a well orchestrated scam and don’t respond.
"However it is the sad truth that some people must send money to these crooks, otherwise they would not go to the trouble of organizing these bogus lotteries.
Our message at Warwickshire Trading Standards is therefore to be wary of these scam prize draws and ‘free’ scratchcards.”
Councillor Townshend Cabinet Member (Corporate and Neighbourhood Services ) at Coventry City Council said,
"These prize draw scams work by convincing people that they have won a large amount of money, sometimes in prize draws they haven’t even entered.
"Then they end up paying money out in advance – or even phoning premium rate phone lines for what turns out to be a highly organised scam and the money is never seen again.
"Our message to people is clear – if you are in doubt - do not enter these kinds of competitions, never send any cash in order to win a prize and never give out any of your personal financial information."
Scam prize draws work by trying to convince the recipient they have won a large prize in a national or international prize draw, even one they have never entered!
Those who try and claim their ‘prize’ are then asked to pay money in advance for ‘administration fees’ for example. In some cases people have paid out hundreds or even thousands of pounds before they realize there is no genuine prize money. Most of these scams are organized by criminal gangs operating abroad and once the money is paid it is almost impossible to recover.
Consumers must also be aware of free’ scratchcards which deliver a prize every time! In most cases the ‘prize winner’ has to phone a premium rate line number to arrange to receive their prize, but in the vast majority of cases, the value of the prize is always less than the cost of the call.
Our Advice if you unexpectedly ‘win’ a prize!
- Treat with extreme caution anyone who phones you to tell you, you are a prize ‘winner’
- Never send any money in order to receive a prize
- If you have won a prize on a free scratchcard, check how much it will cost you to claim it first
- Never give out your personal or financial information to people you don’t know or trust
For more information on the NHW Week event on 17th June at the Allesley Hotel Coventry, please contact Neil Kenton:
Kenton_9211@west-midlands.pnn.police.uk
For further information on scams, visit http://www.warwickshire.gov.uk/tradingstandards or http://www.coventry.gov.uk/tradingstandards or contact Consumer Direct: 08454 040506.