Most Popular
1. It’s a New Macro, the Gold Market Knows It, But Dead Men Walking Do Not (yet)- Gary_Tanashian
2.Stock Market Presidential Election Cycle Seasonal Trend Analysis - Nadeem_Walayat
3. Bitcoin S&P Pattern - Nadeem_Walayat
4.Nvidia Blow Off Top - Flying High like the Phoenix too Close to the Sun - Nadeem_Walayat
4.U.S. financial market’s “Weimar phase” impact to your fiat and digital assets - Raymond_Matison
5. How to Profit from the Global Warming ClImate Change Mega Death Trend - Part1 - Nadeem_Walayat
7.Bitcoin Gravy Train Trend Forecast 2024 - - Nadeem_Walayat
8.The Bond Trade and Interest Rates - Nadeem_Walayat
9.It’s Easy to Scream Stocks Bubble! - Stephen_McBride
10.Fed’s Next Intertest Rate Move might not align with popular consensus - Richard_Mills
Last 7 days
US Presidential Election Year Stock Market Seasonal Trend - 29th Nov 24
Who controls the past controls the future: who controls the present controls the past - 29th Nov 24
Gold After Trump Wins - 29th Nov 24
The AI Stocks, Housing, Inflation and Bitcoin Crypto Mega-trends - 27th Nov 24
Gold Price Ahead of the Thanksgiving Weekend - 27th Nov 24
Bitcoin Gravy Train Trend Forecast to June 2025 - 24th Nov 24
Stocks, Bitcoin and Crypto Markets Breaking Bad on Donald Trump Pump - 21st Nov 24
Gold Price To Re-Test $2,700 - 21st Nov 24
Stock Market Sentiment Speaks: This Is My Strong Warning To You - 21st Nov 24
Financial Crisis 2025 - This is Going to Shock People! - 21st Nov 24
Dubai Deluge - AI Tech Stocks Earnings Correction Opportunities - 18th Nov 24
Why President Trump Has NO Real Power - Deep State Military Industrial Complex - 8th Nov 24
Social Grant Increases and Serge Belamant Amid South Africa's New Political Landscape - 8th Nov 24
Is Forex Worth It? - 8th Nov 24
Nvidia Numero Uno in Count Down to President Donald Pump Election Victory - 5th Nov 24
Trump or Harris - Who Wins US Presidential Election 2024 Forecast Prediction - 5th Nov 24
Stock Market Brief in Count Down to US Election Result 2024 - 3rd Nov 24
Gold Stocks’ Winter Rally 2024 - 3rd Nov 24
Why Countdown to U.S. Recession is Underway - 3rd Nov 24
Stock Market Trend Forecast to Jan 2025 - 2nd Nov 24
President Donald PUMP Forecast to Win US Presidential Election 2024 - 1st Nov 24
At These Levels, Buying Silver Is Like Getting It At $5 In 2003 - 28th Oct 24
Nvidia Numero Uno Selling Shovels in the AI Gold Rush - 28th Oct 24
The Future of Online Casinos - 28th Oct 24
Panic in the Air As Stock Market Correction Delivers Deep Opps in AI Tech Stocks - 27th Oct 24
Stocks, Bitcoin, Crypto's Counting Down to President Donald Pump! - 27th Oct 24
UK Budget 2024 - What to do Before 30th Oct - Pensions and ISA's - 27th Oct 24
7 Days of Crypto Opportunities Starts NOW - 27th Oct 24
The Power Law in Venture Capital: How Visionary Investors Like Yuri Milner Have Shaped the Future - 27th Oct 24
This Points To Significantly Higher Silver Prices - 27th Oct 24

Market Oracle FREE Newsletter

How to Protect your Wealth by Investing in AI Tech Stocks

Office of Fair Trading launches Interactive Scams Guides

ConsumerWatch / Scams Jun 16, 2007 - 02:55 AM GMT

By: Submissions

ConsumerWatch The OFT is today launching a series of interactive scams guides designed to help people avoid being tricked into losing money. The guides expose the clever tactics used by scammers and are the OFT's latest tool in the fight against the scams that cost UK consumers £3.5 billion every year.


There are three interactive guides available – a 'prize draw scam mailing', a 'bogus lottery mailing' and a 'fake clairvoyant mailing', all similar to the type that drop onto the doormats of thousands of people across the UK every day. Each guide contains 'pop-up' text highlighting the tricks used by the scammers to convince people that the letters are genuine. For example, clairvoyant mailings use the recipient's name over and over again, and include printed sections that look like they have been hand-written, when in fact the exact same letter will have been sent to thousands of other people at the same time.

Recent research conducted by the OFT indicates that foreign lottery, prize draw and clairvoyant scams cost consumers more than £350 million every year, with individuals being targeted repeatedly and sometimes losing tens of thousands of pounds. People receiving unsolicited mail that they suspect may be part of a scam can check it for the kinds of tricks explained in the OFT guides before responding, and others who suspect that relatives or friends are at risk can show them examples of what to watch out for.

Christine Wade, Assistant Chief Executive, Consumer Advice and Trading Standards, said:

'Lottery, prize draw and clairvoyant scams can cause untold hurt and harm to the people who are deceived into responding. These guides show people the tricks that scammers regularly use and make it easier for people to protect themselves against scams.'

The interactive guides can be found in the scams area of this site. Consumers who are unsure about unsolicited mailings that they have received should contact Consumer Direct for clear, practical advice on 08454 04 05 06 or visit the Consumer Direct website before they part with any money.

NOTES

1. Mass marketed Scams are an OFT priority. Two years ago the OFT launched a Scambusters team and set up the Scams Enforcement Group with UK partner organisations focusing on law enforcement, consumer education and cooperation with public and private sector bodies to disrupt scammers' routes to market.

2. Recent research commissioned by the OFT involving 11,200 interviews found that 3.2 million UK consumers fall victim to scams every year losing £3.5 billion (an average of around £70 per adult, per annum).

3. Consumer Direct is a telephone and online consumer advice service funded by government and managed by the Office of Fair Trading. It offers clear, practical and impartial advice and information about consumer rights.

By http://www.oft.gov.uk


© 2005-2022 http://www.MarketOracle.co.uk - The Market Oracle is a FREE Daily Financial Markets Analysis & Forecasting online publication.


Comments

Robert
24 Aug 07, 08:51
Scams

Greed is the only way people get scammed they think they won something while paying in nothing, a lot even know they are being scammed yet accept they might have won, one lady said yes it might be a scam but then again it might not, and she sent off money.

People like this are always going to be done and even when they are done once they fall for it again.


Post Comment

Only logged in users are allowed to post comments. Register/ Log in