OFT reveals top five scams

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Three million people in the UK part with more than £3.5bn a year to mass-marketed scams, a study by the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) suggests.

The OFT says UK scam mailings are sent by mail, email text and phone after conducting a ‘Scamnesty’ campaign earlier this year. It says the top five mass-marketed scam mailings in the UK are deceptive sweepstakes, misleading prize draws, fake psychics, bogus foreign lotteries and 'miracle' health cures. It says residents in nearly 50 local authorities dropped more than 15,000 scam mailings in Scamnesty bins across the country over three weeks in February this year. Mike Haley, OFT director of consumer protection, says: “The huge range of mailings uncovered by the Scamnesty campaign il...

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