New research reveals the large scale of mass-marketed scams sweeping across Britain. Scams arrive by post, email, text, phone or the internet and aim to mislead consumers to part with their cash. A study reveals that many British adults have responded to scams in the past and lost money:
• Around one in 11 (just over 4 Million) adults say they have responded to a scam at some time in their life, of whom nearly a third lost money.
• One in 25 (about 2 million) adults have responded to a scam in the last 12 months.
• Around half (49 per cent) of those scammed have lost more than £50 in total, with five per cent losing more than £5000.
• Email is now the most common scam approach - 73 per cent of adults have received a scam email in the past year.
For more information visit: http://www.oft.gov.uk/news/press/2010/07-10
Source: Office of Fair Trading