Research published by the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) just before Christmas revealed that UK consumers are being conned to the tune of £3.5 billion every single year. The detailed analysis suggests that nearly half of the adult population of the UK has been targeted by a scam, and as many as one in fifteen, or 3.2 million people, fall victim to such fraud and lose an average of £850 each. Investment scams were most lucrative with an average pay-off of £5,660 per victim, followed by African 419 advance fee fraud on £5000, property investment scams at £4,240, holiday club schemes at £3,030 and foreign lottery scams at £1,900.
The total fraud can be broken down as £1.2 billion to bogus holiday clubs, £490 million in high risk investment fraud, £420 million pyramid style get-rich-quick schemes and £260 million for lottery scams. Frighteningly enough, the survey also revealed that a victim has a 30% chance of being scammed again within a year of the first sting, not least because there is evidence that their personal details are included on a ‘suckers list’ which gets sold between the scammer organizations.