One in 10 fall foul of mass marketing scams

ONE in 10 adults in Britain has been the victim of mass marketing fraud, it was revealed yesterday.

More than 3.2 million people have handed over cash after being approached by scammers by email, letter or telephone. The total cost of such scams is more than £3.5 billion every year, according to the Office of Fair Trading.

The figures were revealed as the Serious Organised Crime Agency announced it has set its sights on the organised criminal gangs behind these frauds in Britain and abroad. Officials said they have seized fake cheques, postal orders and bank drafts worth more than £8 million (€11.5m).

Criminals are increasingly turning to sophisticated fraudulent financial documents to lever money out of unsuspecting victims.

Paul Evans, director of intervention at the agency, said Britain has become a staging post for the illegal international trade. He said police have closed thousands of British bank accounts linked to mass fraud and used by criminals to give their work legitimacy.

He said: “You may take the view that there is ‘one born every minute’ but, in some of the emails, there are appalling examples of quite vicious exploitation, including threats of violence.”

Mr Evans said many of the bank accounts, often opened with false or stolen identities, are also used to defraud the tax credit system.

He said one retail bank has returned £750,000 (€1.1m) to the Government after acting on agency information.

A large proportion of mass marketing fraud originates in English-speaking West African states.

A recent month-long operation in Nigeria resulted in the seizure of 4,500 false documents including passport and identity cards.

How fraudsters target your cash

By Tom Lowe

FRAUDSTERS use phone calls, texts and the internet to trick the gullible out of thousands of euro.

Here are some examples provided by British Trading Standards Central:

* Auction websites and false or misleading advertising: one eBay buyer who bid hundreds of pounds for the Microsoft games console “Xbox box” got nothing but the cardboard box.

* Bogus prizes or holidays: victims must first pay a “nominal processing fee”, or similar, to obtain a prize, holiday or sum of money.

* Non-existent adverts: victims pay for adverts in publications that do not exist, or are falsified.

* The “Nigerian Letter Fraud” or “419” schemes: invented Nigerian royals or politicians offer a share in a huge sum of money in exchange for details of victims’ bank accounts.

* The Canadian National Lottery scam: victims must, “under Canadian law”, pay 1% of the “winnings”.

Fake customs officials and lawyers then materialise and invent more claims for money until the “lucky winner” realises he has been hoaxed.

* “One-day sales”: fraudsters hire a venue or empty shop to hold a sale, which they advertise in advance. Attracted by the promise of huge discounts on premium goods, buyers are tricked into paying for what turn out to be shoddy or counterfeit stock, or even empty boxes.