y2krog2000
04-10-2007, 03:34 PM
More than 3.2 million Britons have been caught out by conmen after being approached by email, letter or telephone, according to the Office of Fair Trading (OFT).
The most notorious scams centre on an advanced fee, where prizes or large sums of money are offered but to access them the victim must pay money up front.
Sometimes victims receive the promised cash in the form of a cheque and only discover it is fake after paying the fee by un-refundable bank transfer.
The total cost of such scams and swindles is more than ?3.5 billion every year.
The figures were revealed as the Serious Organised Crime Agency (Soca) announced it has set its sights on the organised criminal gangs behind these frauds in the UK and abroad.
A large proportion of mass marketing fraud originates in English-speaking West African states and a recent month-long operation in Nigeria resulted in the seizure of 4,500 false documents including passports and identity cards.
Officials in the UK are working with other agencies in the US, Holland, Spain and Canada to tackle the menace.
Mass marketing fraud uses mass communication tools to reach large numbers of people cheaply and easily.
Paul Evans, director of intervention at Soca, said the UK has become a staging post for the illegal international trade.
He said police have closed thousands of British bank accounts linked to mass fraud and used by criminals to give their work legitimacy.
He said: "We are using new methods to tackle what is actually a very old fraud.
"You may take the view that there is 'one born every minute' but in some of the emails we have intercepted there are appalling examples of quite vicious exploitation, including threats of violence."
Mr Evans said many of the bank accounts, often opened with false or stolen identities, are also used to defraud the tax credit system.
Fake cheques, postal orders and bank drafts worth more than ?8 million have been seized and one High Street bank has already returned ?750,000 to the Government after acting on information from Soca.
Millions fall victim to conmen - Yahoo! News UK (http://uk.news.yahoo.com/itn/20071004/tuk-millions-fall-victim-to-conmen-dba1618_1.html)
The most notorious scams centre on an advanced fee, where prizes or large sums of money are offered but to access them the victim must pay money up front.
Sometimes victims receive the promised cash in the form of a cheque and only discover it is fake after paying the fee by un-refundable bank transfer.
The total cost of such scams and swindles is more than ?3.5 billion every year.
The figures were revealed as the Serious Organised Crime Agency (Soca) announced it has set its sights on the organised criminal gangs behind these frauds in the UK and abroad.
A large proportion of mass marketing fraud originates in English-speaking West African states and a recent month-long operation in Nigeria resulted in the seizure of 4,500 false documents including passports and identity cards.
Officials in the UK are working with other agencies in the US, Holland, Spain and Canada to tackle the menace.
Mass marketing fraud uses mass communication tools to reach large numbers of people cheaply and easily.
Paul Evans, director of intervention at Soca, said the UK has become a staging post for the illegal international trade.
He said police have closed thousands of British bank accounts linked to mass fraud and used by criminals to give their work legitimacy.
He said: "We are using new methods to tackle what is actually a very old fraud.
"You may take the view that there is 'one born every minute' but in some of the emails we have intercepted there are appalling examples of quite vicious exploitation, including threats of violence."
Mr Evans said many of the bank accounts, often opened with false or stolen identities, are also used to defraud the tax credit system.
Fake cheques, postal orders and bank drafts worth more than ?8 million have been seized and one High Street bank has already returned ?750,000 to the Government after acting on information from Soca.
Millions fall victim to conmen - Yahoo! News UK (http://uk.news.yahoo.com/itn/20071004/tuk-millions-fall-victim-to-conmen-dba1618_1.html)