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Are you Scamwise?
Complaints received by the Citizens Advice Consumer Service and by Trading Standards Services show that every year in the South West, hundreds of people are conned by, or encounter problems with scammers and rogue traders. It is estimated that UK consumers lose up to £3.5 billion per year to a variety of scams which exploit low-cost, mass-marketing techniques to target recipients. These include bogus prize draws and lotteries, premium-rate prize promotions, psychic mailings and miracle health cures which mislead recipients.
We also receive complaints from consumers who are cold called by unscrupulous traders offering their services on the door step. The work is often badly done and overpriced. There are strong indications that the actual number of people affected by scams is far greater than the reported figures. Check out our comprehensive Scams List below to make sure you are aware and can avoid falling victim. If you are a business who has received a communication you beleive may be a scam, you can visit our Business Scams page.
The sums lost by individuals from these scams and traders range from small amounts to tens of thousands. Trading standards want to raise consumer awareness of these issues by promoting our tsconnect newsletter and encouraging Devon residents to make the right choice when considering those amazing prize draw offers, or dealing with trades people who knock at the door.
Available leaflets and booklets to download
- Scams In General
(359KB - pdf help) - Telephone Scams (429KB - pdf help)
- Postal Scams (386KB - pdf help)
- Doorstep Selling (510KB - pdf help)
- Scamwise Doorstep Notice (198KB - pdf help)
- Scamwise Window Notice (129KB - pdf help)
Some useful Scamwise related links
www.devon-cornwall.police.uk/CrimePrevention/Pages/Boguscallers.aspx
Scams targeting Consumers
Devon County Councils Trading Standards service receives 100’s of complaints each year about mass marketed scams ranging from prize draw scams to prayer letters. One focus area this year for trading standards is to increase consumer awareness of these cams and to provide help and support to those who have fallen victim.
Our advice to consumers is to ask yourself the following and if you can answer yes to any of these questions then there is a good chance that someone is trying to scam you in which case you should recycle, delete or hang up.
- Was the offer unsolicited?
- Do I have to response straightaway
- Do I have to make a purchase to win a prize?
- Do I have to ring a premium rate number?
- Do I have to give my bank or credit card details?
- Is the business reluctant to give their address or contact details?
- Am I being asked to keep it confidential?
- Does it look too good to be true?
Listed below are examples of some of the most common scams currently operating. However this should not be considered to be an all-inclusive list of scams, fraudsters are constantly attempting to come up with new ways to trick you into parting with your money. Many of these are variations on the existing scams listed below.
Examples of Scams targeting consumers
Cash Prize Letters & Foreign Lottery Scams
Miracle Cure & Weight Loss Scams
Mobile Phone & Satellite TV Insurance Scams
Tarmac gangs & other door to door workmen
You are contacted by a trader who claims to have a highly profitable share offer for you. They are very persistent in calling you, explaining how much money you are likely to make and trying to get you to pay thousands of pounds for the shares. Both the company doing the selling and the company whose shares they are inviting you to purchase are often based abroad. If you agree to send them your money you find that the shares, if they exist at all, are worthless.
You can find out whether a company is an authorised trader using the following link:
http://www.moneymadeclear.fsa.gov.uk/news/scams/share_scams.html
Information about how victims of these scams can report what has happened to the police can be found at:
http://www.cityoflondon.police.uk/CityPolice/ECD/Fraud/boilerroom.htm
You are cold called by a firm saying they are doing a survey about crime and offering a free burglar alarm. If you agree to this, the firm comes round and fits the burglar alarm. Only then do they reveal that for the alarm to be any use you have to pay an expensive monitoring charge every month, they will also charge you for installation. Other tactics reported include claiming to be approved by the police, claiming that the burglar alarm is a “prize”, exaggerating the threat of burglary if no alarm is purchased, claiming police will not answer 999 calls unless you purchase from them and persistence even when the consumer says they are not interested.
You receive a catalogue offering various goods. The catalogue contains statements suggesting that you have won a large cash prize and thus inducing you to order goods. If you place an order the trader sends the goods you have ordered and several further prize offers but no cash prize is ever sent. Trading Standards advise consumers to carefully consider any purchase from catalogues that offer these “prizes”.
You have recently put up an advert for your car. Someone rings you out of the blue claiming to have found a buyer for you. They will put the two of you in touch for a fee. After you part with the money, no buyer contacts you. Always consider in such circumstances why the mysterious buyer is not contacting you directly. Be very wary of entering into contracts and providing bank details over the phone when there is nothing in writing as to what you are exactly contacting for. Salesmen may claim to guarantee sales verbally and then send through written terms and conditions in which almost nothing is guaranteed and it is entirely up to the “buyer” whether they contact you or not.
Cash Prize Letters & Foreign Lottery Scams
You receive a letter, e-mail, phone call or text which states that you have won a cash prize. Sometimes the letter will state you have won a foreign lottery, often the Spanish Lottery. If you contact the sender they will eventually request that a smaller fee be paid in order to claim it. Sometimes they ask you to make a purchase from a catalogue in order to receive the prize. If you pay the money no prize is forthcoming. The letter sometimes uses deceptive wording to imply you have won without ever specifically stating that you have. However, even when there is no “get out” clause in the small print, none of these letters ever pay out any cash prizes. If you do send money to one, your name may be sold on to other fraudsters and you will find yourself bombarded with letters of a similar ilk.
You are rung by a firm claiming that they will be able to obtain compensation for you. Common reasons given include compensation claims for personal injuries, mis-selling of Payment Protection Insurance (PPI) or tax refunds. The trader may falsely claim to be a government department or endorsed by the government. If you agree to this they ask for your bank details, they may claim that this is for an upfront payment or although some may claim they only need these details to put the compensation into your account. Either way a payment will be taken. What happens next varies. Some of these firms do actually do the work, although there is a question as to whether you could have got a better deal if you shopped around. Others will obtain the compensation but not pass it on. In many cases the trader does little or no work to obtain the compensation, often once the upfront fee is taken the consumer never hears from the firm again.
A flyer is posted through your door asking for any spare clothes you wish to donate. They claim that donating this will benefit the people of the Third World or Eastern Europe. In fact the clothes will be sold for profit. Always check to make sure that the company you are donating to is genuine, you can look up registered charities by visiting the Charities Commission website.
You are phoned by somebody who claims that there is a possible problem with your computer. He may claim to be from Microsoft or some similar company. The trader asks if your computer is slow and if you reply that it is he explains that this is a symptom of a virus. You are asked for access to your computer and for a fee to remedy the problems.
In reality if somebody is cold calling you there is no way for them to know over the phone whether there is a problem with your computer or not. Even if at the time of calling there hapepned to be something wrong with your computer, nothing the trader does will improve performance. As well as losing the fee to fix the ficticious problem, if you give the trader access to your computer they may use this opportunity to persuade you to delete vital files or download viruses which they will then offer to fix for further payments. Evidence suggests that most or all of these calls originate from India, although the trader may use diverted telephone numbers to give the impression of calling from within the UK.
You find an advertisement from somebody offering loans. On ringing, the trader offers you a loan which they claim is guaranteed even though you may have a poor credit rating. You are told that as long as you pay an upfront fee the loan will be put into your account within days. After the fee is paid no money is forthcoming. If you are able to get back in touch with them, the company deny what they previously told you and explain that you have hired them as a credit broker and that they have 6 months to find you a loan. They may then try to claim they have fulfilled their promise by putting you in touch with other firms who ask for further upfront fees.
You are contacted by a trader who claims that they can cancel your debts for you. As well as cold calling by telephone these traders are known to go door to door on housing estates where they believe it is likely the residents will be in debt. They ask for an upfront fee for every debt they offer to"get rid" of. The traders claim that they can find problems with how the credit agreements were set up which will render them unenforceable. In some cases the claims the trader has made are false or exaggerated and there is no way to get out of the agreement, in other cases the trader cannot be found once the upfront fee has been paid. Even if the debt is found to be unenforceable, all this means is that the trader cannot force you to pay unless they have a court order; please bear in mind that this is not the same as the debt being cancelled, it is still likely to adversely affect your credit rating and you may still be contacted by debt collectors in relation to it. If you require advice about a debt or debt owed which you are currently experiencing difficulty with, you can visit Direct Government for advice.
These come in the form of e-mails or letters and invite you to give your bank details in order for the writer to ‘transfer’ money into this country. In return for this you are offered a percentage of the millions which will be passing through your account. A high percentage of these mailings claim to be from residents of African Countries. You run the risk of losing the money in your bank account should you decide to take up this offer. The fraudsters will also begin to ask for more and more money to help ease the transfer.
If you have fallen victim of one of these scams then please report this to the police, if you have received one of these e-mails but have not lost money, the best place to forward it is the abuse section of your internet service provider.
You find an advert online offering a free trial of some product or service. You are asked for your bank details when you sign up. Some time later you find that the trader has taken regular payments from your bank account. When you query why the trader explains that hidden in their terms & conditions was a warning that if you did not follow a complicated cancellation procedure you were agreeing to them taking these payments. Goods commonly offered include dieting supplements, health products etc. In addition to the money you are likely to lose there is also the issue that you may be risking your health by consuming an unknown possibly u- tested product provided to you by a rogue trader over the internet. Always ask yourself why, if an offer is supposedly free, they need to know all your bank details?
You find an advert offering a job opportunity where you can make lots of money while working at home. You have to pay a fee in order to become part of the scheme and will then be paid on commission. If you pay your fee you will find that none of the work you do will ever be considered good enough to earn you any commission. This is a scam with the sole intention of taking the advance fee.
You are contacted by a trader who claims to have a risk free scheme to help you bet on horses. You pay money to them and they will either bet it on horses on your behalf or provide you tips as to which horses you need to bet on. Various figures are given to show that this will minimise your risk while maximising your profits. You are encouraged to pay them several large sums of money. You never receive any payouts for any bets you make and the company refuse to return your money.
You find an advert offering a job. On contacting the trader he offers you the job immediately but tells you that you need to pay an up front fee. He assures you that once this fee is paid work will start coming your way. Once the fee is paid the trader never contacts you again and no work is provided. Trading Standards advise that you never to pay an up front fee for the promise of a job. For advice on getting a job you can visit JobCentre Plus
Miracle Cure & Weight Loss Scams
You receive unsolicited mail claiming to be able to cure some hitherto incurable disease or ailment. Alternatively it will claim to help you lose weight but without going on a diet or doing any exercise. The mailing may well give quotes from various customers and “doctors” claiming that the product works. Trading Standards advise that if a medical claim sounds too good to be true it probably is. Always consult a health care professional before parting with any money for treatments.
You are cold called over the phone by someone who implies they are your telephone service provider. In actual fact this is a sales company. They ask whether you would like an upgrade to your contract. They may quote various figures to show you will be better off if you do. If you agree to this you then find that you have been switched to a different telephone service provider and tied into a new contract. The claims made over the phone as to the costs and advantages of this contract often turn out to be either exaggerated or false. Sometimes they do this even if you do not agree, so it is important to remember not to give a cold caller any details which might help them. If you are considering buying a mobile phone, please have a look at our consumer resources page and check the Buyer's Guide
Mobile Phone & Satellite TV Insurance Scams
You are cold called over the phone by someone who implies they are your telephone service provider or TV Company. This may happen within a very short time of purchase. They then attempt to sell you insurance. The insurance is often expensive and unnecessary. It later turns out that they were totally unconnected to the company they were implying they were.
You are sent a letter stating that the sender has discovered a marvellous way of making lots of money, a scheme they will tell you about for a small fee. If you send the money you get a letter telling you to send out adverts of the type you initially received or something equally worthless.
You find an advert inviting you to get work as a mystery shopper. After a short while the company ask you to test the services of a bank or financial institution by transferring some money. You never see the money or the company again.
These are sales which attempt to get people to buy without considering their purchases. The next day if there are any problems the company will have vanished without a trace. They typically entice people with the promise of bargains to enter into mock auctions with fake bidders getting the bargain goods. However once the genuine customers are convinced to start bidding for items, poor quality goods are then passed on for inflated prices. They are typically held in hotels. The hotel owner ends up facing the wrath of the disappointed customers and the trader is long gone. The products the customer ends up with may not even be the one they thought they were bidding for with the customer not finding out until he has opened the packaging, by which time the trader may have already escaped. Some people even end up finding they have bid for an empty box.
You search on the internet for an item you are interested in buying. You find a website selling the item for less than the normal price. Once you have paid the goods are either not delivered or they are delivered they are counterfeits. Some victims claimed they felt the website was trustworthy because it had the word UK in its name or had a .co.uk web address. In reality most of these websites are registered outside the EU, with the consequent difficulty in getting your money back. A .co.uk web address can be purchased by traders in any country. The website www.brand-i.org will help you find genuine retailers of brand name products.
You receive an email purporting to be from “your bank”, asking you to confirm your account details either by a return e-mail or by directing you to an official looking website for you to enter your details. If you enter details these could be used by the scammers to drain money from your account.
These scams are known as phishing because the e-mail is sent out to hundreds of people in the hope that one will think it is their real bank and bite.
Real banks do not contact people in this way. In a variation on this, some e-bay customers have been contacted with similar missives supposedly from e-bay. E-bay has confirmed that they do not send such e-mails.
This sort of scam is outside of Trading Standards remit, but they can be forwarded to reports@banksafeonline.org.uk. By doing this you will help towards the identification and removal of fraudulent websites. Please note that due to the large number of complaints about this sort of scam banksafeonline will not respond to individual enquiries.
You may receive a letter from someone offering to pray for you and your family. You may be given a spiritual list from which you can select the areas that you may feel you need support with and of course all this is for a fee. This type of scam along with the predictions scam below preys on a person's hopes and fears, and offers no proveable outcome for the money you have parted with.
A "psychic" writes to you, giving vague predictions for the future and suggesting that someone is going to cause you harm or that bad luck is about to befall you. The letter then asks that you send a sum of money to the "psychic" in order that you can be protected from this harm.
You are told by letter that you are guaranteed one of a list of prizes, you are asked to call a premium rate number or send off a sum of money in order to receive it.
With many of these schemes, on first reading it appears that you have won the main prize, but when you go on to read the small print you will actually only have been entered into a prize draw.
Pay careful attention to the list of possible prizes and the quantities of each prize. One of the prizes is worth substantially less than the others, and usually you will find the one you are most likely to receive is of the least actual value. For any of these offers to be profitable the most common prize will be worth less than the cost of the call or the fee that you are being asked to send.
In some cases the prize comes in the form of a voucher which in order to redeem; you will have to pay even more money.
You are contacted by a person who explains that he wishes to offer you the opportunity to invest in some property. He shows you several sites and explains that as soon as planning permission is granted there will be used for the building of major property developments. He asks you to invest many thousand pounds now, with the prospect of getting huge profits once the developments have been built. He may take several months trying to convince you to invest this money. Once the money is paid however he ceases contact unless he thinks there is a way to get further money out of you. The land is found to have little or no chance of planning permission being granted and the trader vanishes with your money. Because of the large amounts of money that can be gained in this scam the trader may put considerable effort into convincing you of his legitimacy, meeting you, allowing you to visit offices which will be deserted once you realise there is a problem and creating official looking websites and documents for himself.
You are approached by someone, possibly even a personal friend, inviting you to join a marvellous scheme to make money. You invest money into the scheme and then invite other people to join. When a certain number of people have joined the scheme you will progress up until eventually you reach the top of the scheme. At this point you get a payout from the money invested by the people underneath you in the scheme. The promoters of this scheme usually try and explain that there is a loophole in the law that means that their scheme is not a pyramid scheme at all and is therefore totally legal. For example they will claim that if a donation is made to charity this makes the scheme legal. Pyramid schemes are illegal and there are no such loopholes. They only work if there are an infinite number of investors, which of course, is impossible. The scam recruits all its victims into being further promoters of the scheme to their personal contacts. When the scheme collapses the investors find that they have not only lost their own money but been responsible for their family and friends losing money as well.
You receive an unsolicited e-mail from abroad. This claims that someone with the same surname as you has died and that as they have no other living relatives you are entitled to their large estate. If you do get in touch to try and claim this money you will be strung along for cash and bank account details in much the same way as if you had responded to the African money laundering scam.
Tarmac gangs, guttering and facias & other door to door workmen
Someone knocks on your door claiming to be working in the area and that they have some tarmac with which to do your drive at a cut price rate. They often state that they have been doing work for the council and have had the tarmac left over. Work done is often of poor quality and the final bills are often far higher than what was originally quoted, which are frequently excessive to begin with. Although they can be quite charming in their attempts to get you to agree to the work, they often turn threatening when it comes to be time to pay. Many go as far as to drive elderly residents to the bank in order to force them to withdraw more money. A few months later, when there are weeds coming through the tarmac, the traders have vanished with little hope of finding them. The Council does not employ people who do this, so any such claims are likely to be false.
In a variation on the same scam these workmen may also be offering to do guttering and fascia work or other forms of home maintenance. Typically they target those less able to check the quality of the work or who may be easily intimidated into parting with large sums of money.
If you have any evidence that such workmen are extorting the elderly or vulnerable in your area, then we suggest that you get as much information as you can and contact either ourselves on 01392 381381 or the police. In particular, we would like to be informed immediately if you are aware a gang is currently working in your area.
Websites may offer tickets to popular events at discounted prices, or for events that are otherwise sold out. If you purchase the tickets there is a real risk they may not to be delivered. After the event has taken place the website you have purchased from ceases to trade. Only purchase tickets from reputable websites that have a good history of successful deliveries.
You are contacted by or respond to an advert from a trader who offers to take your timeshare or holiday club points off your hands. It claims it will be able to provide a buyer for the points. However either they or the “buyer” they find, request that you must first make another large payment or purchase even more points from them. You are asked to sign documents. On examining these later you find that the company has promised to do almost nothing in return for your money. They will give you an unspecified proportion of your money back at some date in the future. By this time the company is often long gone.
What can you do?
On receipt of a letter e-mail or call you consider to be a scam you can report it to Citizens Advice Consumer Service who will also offer advice if you have fallen victim.
If you have a complaint about a service which revolving around a premium rate 0906 phone number, then you can contact Phonepayplus, who regulate these numbers, at:
Phonepayplus
Clove Building
4 Maguire St
London
SE1 2NQ
0800 500212
Should you receive an excessive amount of junk mail, telesales calls or prize offer faxes, you can do something to stop it by contacting one of the following organisations:
Mail Preference Service: 0845 7034599
Fax Preference Service: 0845 0700702
Telephone Preference Service: 0845 0700707
E-mail Preference Service: www.ims-dm.com/cgi/optoutemps.php
These Services can provide you with information and a registration form. Registration is free, and it can help to stop you receiving offers and information you do not wish to receive, by making your address or telephone/fax numbers unavailable to companies wishing to contact you.
There are many more seemingly fool proof offers for you to get rich quick. Read the small print carefully, look past the bold type and colourful suggestions and carefully consider what the wording actually means. It is a good idea not to send any money you are not prepared to lose. Remember if it seems too good to be true, it probably is.
For information on a range of consumer issues you can visit our website or for more in-depth information money laundering and foreign scams visit www.met.police.uk/fraudalert.
If you need advice and assistance you can call Citizens Advice Consumer Service on 08454 04 05 06
Law Enforcement and Consumer Education for Partnership Agencies
Consumer Education
Devon trading standards are committed to increasing awareness of rogue trader and mass marketed scams through the delivery of talks to vulnerable groups and to those who may have a role in providing care and support to those that may be targeted.
If you are a member of a group or are a carer who would benefit from receiving information and guidance about scams or rogue traders, or you are concerned about someone who may be victim please call us on the number below for information as to how trading standards may be able to help.
Law Enforcement
We are also keen to promote closer working with fellow law enforcement agencies to reduce the impact of rogue trader activity and to bring these perpetrators to task.
Given the impact on victims of rogue traders and the links with distraction burglaries trading standards have committed themselves to attend 100% of rogue trader reports.
For those involved in law enforcement there are a number of trading standards offences that are common with regards to rogue trader activity and indeed mass marketed scams.
We are currently initiating training for those who enforce the law and who would benefit from an increased awareness of the way in which trading standards work– if you believe your agency could benefit from this training please call us.
For advice and guidance as to how trading standards can assist please call 01392 381381
