If you run a business, it is important to have a list of clients who are interested in what you have to offer. Over the years, the nature of this list has changed. For many years, people were told to focus on building an email list because this provided you with a way to contact a lot of people who had previously expressed an interest in what you had to offer. In more recent times, the email list is still important but it has been slightly superseded by the emergence of social media lists. If you have a business that wants or needs to connect with your audience quickly, having a list of people on Twitter or Facebook is going to be a brilliant way to get in touch with your clients.
There is a lot to be said about having a list because the people on it are far more likely to buy from you. This is a basic business principle but it is a principle that also appears to have been taken on by scammers. We don’t like to think of con-men and tricksters as possible who are carrying out legitimate work but in their mind, they are definitely performing in a way that many businesses are. This is why it shouldn’t be a surprise that some fraudsters have compiled a “suckers list” and this list has been spread and shared around people who operate in the underbelly on society.
Contents
There is a big list of potential scam victims
It turns out that Trading Standards have uncovered a list of 200,000 potential victims. The Trading Standards investigators have been working on a fraudulent mail project and this list indicates that scammers know who they are looking to target with their activities.
The NTS, the National Trading Standards, have said that the average age of a person on the list was 74 years old. This gives off a clear statement that scammers are looking to prey on people who are old and maybe vulnerable. Over 10,000 people were identified as victims and it is said that they lost an average of £1,184 each, which means that over £13 was lost in total. However, there has also been work carried out by the National Trading Standards Scams Team, the NTSST, and this work has been claimed to have saved over £5m in the last three years.
These scammers are being targeted and focused on
The team has managed to directly prevent close to £3m going to criminals and it has also supported local Trading Standards teams to make savings of around £2.3m. These figures have been issued during Scam Awareness Month in an attempt to indicate that there is a lot to be aware of with respect to scams. Some people may think that they will not fall for scams but with so many scammers looking to actively target people, there is a high chance that some people may at least come into contact with scammers.
The Chairman of the NTS, Lord Toby Harris, said; “To have saved consumers more than £5 million in three years is a great achievement and shows the powerful effect the National Trading Standards Scams Team is having. However, we know our work is not done. Criminal scammers are targeting some of the most vulnerable people in society, ripping them off in many cases for thousands of pounds. We are going to continue in our fight to protect consumers and we urge you to help us by reporting suspected cases of postal fraud to the Royal Mail.”
A team leader for the NTSST, Louise Baxter, released a statement, saying; “We really need the public to help us with this by being vigilant about mass marketing scams themselves but also looking out for relatives or neighbors, particularly those who are elderly or vulnerable. We often find victims who have lost hundreds of thousands.”
With so many people involved with these scams, it is perhaps inevitable that many people will be calling on the support and services of experienced fraudulent solicitors. If you have been involved with a fraud, it is essential that you get the support and guidance of a professional firm who has a great depth of knowledge and expertise when it comes to fraudulent activity. With the current economic climate being what it is, it is likely that many people will experience these scams and no matter what your involvement with it is, you will find that obtaining legal representation can make a big difference to the final outcome.
