TRADING standards officers in North East Lincolnshire are supporting Scamnesty this February – a national campaign which aims to uncover fraudulent mass marketing scams.

Every year 3.2 million adults across the country fall victim to a scam involving deceptive unsolicited mailings, phone calls or emails, which are designed to con victims out of their cash. In total, UK consumers lose £3.5billion to scams every year.

These include fake lottery and prize draw wins, bogus psychic predictions, get-rich-quick investment cons and miracle health cures. Although anyone can fall for a scam, the elderly and vulnerable are more likely to be targeted.

Scamnesty 2010, a scheme run by the Office of Fair Trading which runs throughout February, gives people the chance to uncover the fraudsters by providing a number of easily accessible bins into which they can drop any scam mailings received.

The information provide valuable intelligence to the Office of Fair Trading and local
trading standards officers, helping to inform future investigations which will prevent others from being scammed.

Last year the campaign revealed that the top five mass-marketed scam mailings in the UK were deceptive sweepstakes, misleading prize draws, fake clairvoyants/psychics, bogus foreign lotteries, and miracle health cures.

Steve Beasant, North East Lincolnshire Council’s portfolio holder for community safety and public protection, said: “Fraudsters are continually inventing new ways of conning people out of their money, and this annual campaign provides the authorities with the information they need to uncover and eradicate these unscrupulous scams. Anyone who is suspicious of something they receive, either by post, fax or email, should take it to one of our bins – drop it in, and drop them in it.”

Neil Clark, principal  trading  standards officer, said: “I hope we can improve on previous years to get the message out to the community about how to avoid scams because every day, people are at risk from unscrupulous fraudsters who want to con them out of their cash. By dropping your scam mailing into a Scamnesty bin, you will help provide crucial intelligence to support us in stopping scams bringing misery to millions of people every year.”

In North East Lincolnshire, Scamnesty bins will be placed at: 10 local libraries; the council’s customer access points in Grimsby, Cleethorpes and Immingham; Age Concern (Grimsby); the Grimsby, and the Immingham Resource Centre.