Deceptive Sweepstakes are top scam mailings in the UK
Deceptive Sweepstakes and misleading prize draws are the top two mass-marketed scam mailings in the UK, according to the Office of Fair Trading (OFT).
The OFT and Trading Standards Services’ Scamnesty campaign launched earlier this year shows deceptive sweepstakes, misleading prize draws, fake clairvoyants, bogus foreign lotteries and ‘miracle’ health cures are the top five mass-marketed scam mailings in the UK.
Every year three million people in the UK collectively lose £3.5bn to mass marketed scams they receive by mail, email, text or over the phone which are designed to con victims out of their cash.
Ealier this year, the Scamnesty campaign encouraged the public to fight back against scammers by collecting any scam mailings they had received and dropping them into designated Scamnesty bins at local libraries and other public areas across the country.
Residents in nearly 50 local authorities dropped more than 15,000 scam mailings in Scamnesty bins across the country. Derbyshire, Edinburgh, Brighton and Hove, Hampshire and Norfolk all reported at least 1,000 separate scam mailings.
OFT director of consumer protections Mike Haley says: “The huge range of mailings uncovered by the Scamnesty campaign illustrate that there really is a scam for everyone. This campaign has provided crucial intelligence, helping us to stop scams bringing misery to millions of people every year.”
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