Fraudsters win if victims stay silent Con targets are brave to come forward.. unlike web trolls

IT takes guts to admit that you’ve been the victim of a scam.

If you’ve been mugged or burgled, you’re guaranteed sympathy from others, but that’s not always the case if you’ve been conned.

Take retired telecoms worker John Williams, who cares for his wife Carol who has terminal cancer.

I told two weeks ago how they lost £53,000 to crooks who phoned John posing as staff at his bank, Santander, and persuaded him to transfer money to their accounts.

Among the kind comments under the online version of the story was: “Poor man! I feel so sorry for him. He was caught at such a vulnerable time.” There was also “Doh! How stupid?” That heartless response is not particularly unusual.

Every time I write about the experience of some poor soul who has bravely described being fleeced there is usually someone cruel enough to make matters worse by blaming the victim.

Mainly they can be dismissed as cowards who exploit the ease with which you can make anonymous abusive comments online.

I also wonder if crooks post comments like this to create an atmosphere in which victims are afraid to come forward.

In the last year the number of recorded fraud offences increased 7% to more than 660,000, but even this huge figure is just the tip of the iceberg.

According to Trading Standards, only 5% of scams are reported, often because victims are too embarrassed to speak out. That’s why a key theme of this year’s Scams Awareness Month is removing the stigma of being a con victim.

Louise Baxter, Trading Standards Scams Team manager, said: “One of our main objectives is taking away the shame, to get people to talk about fraud and treat them as other victims of crime are treated.”

Citizens Advice urges: “Share your experiences, by word of mouth, social media or whatever your preferred way.”

The alternative is staying quiet and that will only benefit one group of people – fraudsters. Crooked cold callers are giving the impression they’re phoning from Sky to trick people into paying to renew insurance on their satellite equipment. They didn’t get anywhere with reader John Macandrew, who told me: “I had a phone call telling me that my Sky box insurance had expired. “I replied ‘thank goodness’ as I cancelled my contract over 10 years ago and have been with Virgin ever since. I then hung up.”

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UPFRONT John Williams and wife Carol