Scam Prevention

Request:

“I am looking into how local authorities deal with victims of fraud –i.e. Postal fraud, online fraud etc. and I would like to get the answers to the following questions please?

1. How many potential fraud victims have been referred to your trading standards department over the past two years?
2. How many of these potential victims have been visited by a representative of the trading standards department?
3. What kind of support is offered to people who have been targeted by fraudsters? I.e. collection and disposal of scam mail, provision of call blockers etc.”

I am particularly looking in to instances of postal, doorstep and telephone fraud.

Response:

Devon, Somerset and Torbay Trading Standards receive information which may allege frauds or “scams” from a variety of sources and our primary role in this regard is to enforce Consumer Protection legislation. However, we have also undertaken participation in the National Trading Standards Boards “Scams Project” whereby programmed visits or interventions may be made to suspected scams victims who are initially identified by the “Scams Team” and then referred to us. Visits are carefully planned and potentially extensive which have a view to: returning cheques and monies obtained by Trading Standards; discussing and outlining the pitfalls of scams particularly postal and telephone mass marketing scams; assessing whether any information to enable or inform enforcement action is available; providing signposting to other sources of advice or support. “Interventions” may take the form of written or telephone contact including questionnaires designed to help determine the level of support needed and this may then lead to a visit. Information about our 2017/18 performance can be found in our published Annual Performance Report; tasks TS1739 and TS1740 being most relevant.

In relation to your specific questions the answers are as below, but we have not included visits where the prime focus was for purely investigative purposes or the element of “scams” work was marginal. We have only counted visits which have had a focus on support and prevention. Some referrals included have come from sources other than the NTS “Scams team” e.g. police, social services, where inclusion in the programmed scams work was considered appropriate. Please note that Torbay Council amalgamated their Trading Standards Service with Devon and Somerset in May 2017 but we have not disaggregated their figures prior to that date so the figures given would include any request you have made to Torbay.

1. How many potential fraud victims have been referred to your trading standards department over the past two years? 1367.

2. How many of these potential victims have been visited by a representative of the trading standards department? 87.

3. What kind of support is offered to people who have been targeted by fraudsters? I.e. collection and disposal of scam mail, provision of call blockers etc.

“Loan of Call blockers and collection of scam mail is a feature of our scams visits.

Please see the information above and in our Performance Report and Para 8.3 of our published Operational Plan:-