The Scams Awareness Fortnight campaign kicked off on 15 June and encourages residents to “Be Scam Aware”.
Andrew adds, "This year’s campaign will focus on raising awareness of COVID-19 related scams across the country. Sadly, the COVID-19 pandemic has provided an opportunity for scammers to try to exploit vulnerable people during this difficult time. This can include emails pretending to provide help with applying for support schemes, to scammers asking for money for fake charities."
• Citizens Advice research has found that over a third of British adults have been the target of a scam since lockdown began, including 2 in 5 people (37%) in Yorkshire and the Humber.
• It is often the most vulnerable who are targeted, for example half (50%) of those at an “increased risk of coronavirus” had been contacted by scammers.
• The majority of people (64%) say they are worried someone they know will fall foul of a con.
Citizen’s Advice have put together some useful resources and advice for consumers, which you can find online here: https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/sa20/
Part of the campaign is to encourage victims to speak up and ensure that these crimes are reported and that the perpetrators are brought to justice. As such, I have provided some useful links for reporting potential scams below:
https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/consumer/scams/reporting-a-scam/
https://www.gov.uk/report-suspicious-emails-websites-phishing
