Fraudsters are using mass marketed mailings to scam Britons out of billions of pounds every year.
A new report out today has for the first time revealed the vulnerability of the British public to so called ‘mass-marketed scam mailings’.
The research, carried out by the Office of Fair Trading, found that over 3 million Brits fall victim to mail, text, email and phone scams every single year. With a collective £3.5billion paid out to these unseen fraudsters annually.
However, despite the huge number of individuals affected by this invasive crime, the true extent of its incursion has remained largely unknown until now as fewer than 5% of its victims are thought to report their experience.
Offers of sweepstakes, misleading prize draws, fake psychics, miracle health cures and bogus lotteries were cited by the OFT as the ‘top 5’ scams used by fraudsters to extract money from their unsuspecting victims. They did however acknowledge that this is only the tip of the iceberg.
The OFT report summarises the findings of their ‘Scamnesty’ campaign, run earlier in the year with the help of over 50 of Britain’s Local Authority Trading Standards Services.
As part of the campaign, specifically designed to uncover the magnitude and impact of scam mailings in the UK, Scamnesty bins were placed in local libraries and other public places across the country. Members of the public were then asked to drop details of any scam mailings they received into these bins as evidence.
The OFT announced that over 15,000 scam mailings were collected by the 50 Local Authorities in the three weeks that the campaign ran last February.
OFT Director of Consumer Protection, Mike Haley, commented :
"The huge range of mailings uncovered by the Scamnesty campaign illustrate that there really is a scam for everyone."
"This campaign has provided crucial intelligence, helping us to stop scams bringing misery to millions of people every year."
The OFT plan to repeat the exercise in February 2009 as part of their continuing effort to bring awareness of this relatively unpublicised fraud to the public conscious.
However, in the meantime the OFT advise anyone who receives a potential scam offer to 'Stop, think, and think again'. They also encourage members of the public who are targeted by a scam mailing to talk to family and friends or call Consumer Direct (08454 04 05 06) for advice before responding to any mailing that seems too good to be true.
Comments (6)
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colin syme
8th Sep 2008 22:40
I am a retired postman, lt used to break my heart when l delivered these letters,(usually from Canada) to pensioners on my round,--because l signed the official secrets act l was forbiden to even mention or discuss this with the public as these fraudsters were customers of Royal Mail,--they had paid for the postage. The people receiving these items were nearly always, elderly, senile, or poor on benefits, some actually received more than 20 such letters every day!
brian burkhardt
9th Sep 2008 10:38
I have had these emails from England telling me i have won a lottery, at first i thought maybe i had. But then they wanted my addresse and other information, which i stupidly gave to them. Then they said i had to forward so much money so the cheque could be sent to me. Now i was going for it until they wanted this money. I could'nt understand why they just could'nt mail the cheque to me. Then the light bulb went off in my head, I was being scammed. Now when i get these emails, i just delete them. But i do wonder just how many people do send money and get scammed.
ollie rochester usa
9th Sep 2008 13:36
A little over a year ago I discovered my 90 year old father-in-law had been victimized by these scammers to the tune of over $17,000. I contacted the police, the State Attorney General's office, the FBI, and the US Postal service without finding anyone really interested in the 'evidence' I had collected, over 200 scam mailers that had arrived in my father-in-law's mailbox in a matter of a few days.
I got the impression our Lords and Masters may be regarding these scams as mere evidence of entrepreneurial zeal.
Coincidently I received an E-mail just today stating that I won a sum of money from Microsoft's British Lottery. They asked me to fill out all sorts of personal information and that I should not mention this to anyone until I received the money prize which was One Million British Pounds. I have been trying to get in touch with someone from Microsoft, but.....you know how that goes. PLEASE, ANYBODY OUT THERE READING THIS, DO NOT FALL FOR THAT STUFF. If you are going to win a large money prize, I really think there would be another way in which you would be contacted.
michael S
9th Sep 2008 15:38
I am an art dealer and I deal in Fien paintings. on aug 23rd I was surfing ebay looking for paintings to buy and i found a painting that was worth about 40,000 USD listed on ebay for a " buy it now " price of 10,000.00 USD. so naturally I went ahead and did the purchase. I tried contacting the buyer and got no answer until 5 days later asking to wir ethe money. I requested a telephone number to talk to them but they gave me every excuse in the book that they are not in england and they honeymooning in sydney etc, I even offered to pay more money if I can see the painting first i got no where with them except threats that they will sell it to some one else. anyway I did my research and found that they downloaded the images of the painting from archives of an old auction site. and I found the same images that were posted on ebay. luckily I realised if it is too good to be true it is most likely not true. So imagine how many other people fall for this trick. BE CAREFUL OUT THERE
Uncle Vanya
21st Oct 2008 18:45
Actually, statistically the largest age range for people who fall for these scams is the 25 to 45 year olds. It is still amazing just how stupid supposedly 'educated' and 'intelligent' folks fall for scams.
All scammers are playing on is people's tupidity and greed - above all greed. That 'Something for Nothing!' and of course greed usually wins over all.
Yes, I feel sorry for those who have been scammed, but the old sayings ... 'A Fool and Thier Money are soon parted' and 'There No Fool Like an old Fool!'.
It's a case of 'Buyer Beware' - don't get scammed!!
