Scammers are conning victims out of thousands - Trading Standards

Victims are unwittingly being used to help defraud others.

An elderly victim in Hastings has been conned out of 35,000.

An investigation led by the City of Westminster Trading Standards Service uncovered a complex national network of elderly fraud victims, who were called by phone and told they had won up to 500,000.

In a new development, some victims have been groomed by the scammers into acting as unwitting "money mules" to bank money received from other victims, and then send cash transfers over to the fraudsters in Canada having themselves been conned into thinking these payments were from "sponsors" who would all be repaid out of their own "winnings".

One elderly victim in Hastings lost over 35,000, having sent off numerous cheques over a period of a year, to five other people, all based in the UK.

Caught up in the same scam was another victim from Storrington, West Sussex, who was groomed into acting as a "money mule" and she unwittingly transferred over 21,000 of UK victims money over to the scammers in Canada.

In the case of the Hastings resident, the telephone calls she received were so regular that a Trading Standards Officer was able to visit and intercept an expected call from one of the scammers.

The scammer politely and calmly lied to the officer, who posed as a friend of the victim, about being a Canadian tax official and why the victim now needed to pay a further 3,000 to pay the "import levy" before her cheque could be released.

Councillor Bob Tidy, lead county cabinet member for community safety at East Sussex County Council said: "This is an example of how sophisticated and devious these scams can be. The victims of these crimes were elderly people from across England, and are being ruthlessly exploited by those engaged in this type of callous financial abuse. Our advice to anyone who receives a telephone call, letter or email telling them that they have won a large cash prize is to stop, think and be sceptical.".

Anyone who is contacted about an alleged prize draw or lottery win and suspects it may be a scam should immediately contact Consumer Direct for clear, practical advice on 08454 04 05 06 or http://www.consumerdirect.gov.uk.

Overseas prize draw scammers use "money mules" in the UK for a number of reasons.

Some victims are unable to effect a money transfer because they live in rural areas with no convenient money transfer facilities or they don't have a valid passport.

Many victims are less suspicious if money is sent to a genuine UK address rather than abroad.

Victims believe that the alleged prize win must be genuine because they are receiving cheques from so-called "sponsors."

In recent years lottery and prize draw scammers have become more sophisticated in their attempts to defraud consumers.

Counterfeit cheques are increasingly being sent to victims to help cover their "expenses" and convince them the win is genuine.

By the time the victim is notified by their bank that the cheque is fake they may have already sent thousands of pounds to the scammer.

East Sussex Trading standards have issued several warnings about this over the past two years.