Scamnesty Results: The More You Give the More You Will Receive!
As Scamnesty Month draws to a close Warwickshire County Council’s Trading Standards are reporting that, when it comes to scams, ‘the more you give, the more you will receive!’
Trading Standards Officers found that consumers that regularly responded to scam mail, including sending money, received an ever larger number of bogus mailings in return.
Trading Standards Officers placed Scamnesty boxes at locations across Warwickshire as part of the Office of Fair Trading’s Scamnesty Campaign, designed to raise awareness of mass marketing postal and email scams.
Although many of the mailings collected were more common bogus lottery winner and prize draw scams, some people who received a lot of scam mail also received some very strange letters, including those from clairvoyants and people offering wealth, happiness and health with the help of crystal pyramids or ‘gold’ coins.
UK consumers lose a staggering £3.5 billion every year to the criminal gangs who run bogus mass marketing scams.
Most common postal scams
Our survey of mailings collected revealed that the most commonly received scams were bogus foreign lottery and prize draw scams. These used statements such as ‘ Designated Winner of Grand Award’ or ‘Eligible for Cash and Prizes’ to trick consumers in to believing that they had already won a large cash sum, even though they had never entered the lottery itself!
In every case consumers were expected to pay an upfront fee of anything between a few pounds and several hundred. The small print revealed that what the consumer was actually paying for was often entry in to a lottery which they had very little chance of winning.
Strangest Postal Scams
Some of the strangest postal scams came from people who claimed to be mentalists or clairvoyants or were offering ‘miracle’ objects such as coins, talismans and pyramids. These bogus letters often adopt an aggressive tone and suggest that the recipient will experience some misfortune unless the advice of the letter is followed. In all cases recipients were asked to purchase the ‘miraculous’ objects or buy in to the ‘mind systems’ offered in the letters.
As Scamnesty Month draws to a close, Warwickshire Trading Standards Service advises the following:
· Never respond to a scam letter or email, you will be placed on a ‘suckers’ list and only receive more.
· Very elderly, isolated and vulnerable people are particularly at risk of falling victim. Warn friends, neighbours and family members and look out for the warning signs including large piles of junk mail and cheap jewellery etc.
· The best place to put a scam letter or email is in the bin!
· For more information on scam, visit our website: http://www.warwickshire.gov.uk/tradingstandards