| Fraudsters feel the heat as OFT launches ‘scambusters’ team |
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Swindlers and cheaters could be in for a rude shock, as the government has put together an entire squad called the ‘scambusters’ team that will look into the nastiest marketing scams carried out to dupe unaware consumers.
Fraudsters cause vulnerable consumers to squander about £1bn each year through myriad marketing tricks to make their products look falsely attractive, using mainly cheap modes of communication like the internet and the telephone. The Office of Fair Trading (OFT), stated that frauds were commonplace mainly for claims involving big-prized lotteries, miraculous health benefits, uncanny mailings and product promotions. What’s more, with charges for phones and the internet becoming lesser, such instances were only going to mount.
OFT that will launch the Scams Enforcement Group (SEG), asserted that their 10-member squad would assemble other law enforcement groups, like the National Criminal Intelligence Service (NCIS) and trading standards, to update themselves on the latest scams. Besides creating awareness amongst consumers about online scams and selling malpractices, the SEG would catch hold of the shrewdest fraudsters by working in alliance with postal operators, various housing address agencies in order to get to the core of the problem and prevent crooks from reaching the market at all.
Director of consumer regulation enforcement at OFT, Christine Wade explained, “Scams are big business. The OFT's new team will target deceptive schemes that exploit consumer vulnerabilities to con people out of their money."
OFT seems to have achieved some results already, as a few traders have abstained from posting deceptive prize draws to lure consumers to call on a highly charged number. Online ‘matrix schemes’ that assure people of an opportunity to get attractive prizes such as cell phones if they bought a low-priced item, have also been arrested to a remarkable extent by OFT’s team.
Posted
on : Fri, 23 Sep 2005 12:40 GMT | General News
By : Rob Davis
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