Service aims to tackle fraud as one in ten fall victim to online scams
Almost one in 10 people have fallen victim to online scam ads via social media sites or search engines as platforms fail to tackle a flood of bogus ads posted by fraudsters, a report has claimed.
The study, from consumer watchdog Which ?, comes as a new service has been launched by Scotland’ s national consumer advice service Advice Direct Scotland, to protect people from scammers.
Scam watch is a free tool that allows consumers to report suspected scams and suspicious activity, including online, telephone and doorstep scams.
The service has been launched as part of National Consumer Week 2020.
The coronavirus pandemic has seen a sharp rise in activity by scammers in Scotland. Fraud in Scotland was 72 per cent higher in September than last year, according to the most recent official data.
In September, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon highlighted that scammers were trying to trick Scots into paying for Covid contact tracing, while local councils have reported a number of doorstep scams relating to outdoor work in recent months.
Businesses in Scotland have also rep or ted several cyb er scams, including fraudsters pretending to be from HMRC to access people’s bank details.
Andrew Bartlett, chief executive of Advice Direct Scotland, said: “Scams impact people in Scotland every day, sometimes costing them thousands of pounds. “By sharing information with enforcement agencies, together we can shut out the scammers."
Which? is calling for the government to give tech giants greater legal responsibility for preventing scam content from appearing on their sites, after hundreds of people shared their stories of falling victim to convincing purchase scams when a consumer is misled into paying in advance for goods that are never received or are not as described.
Over the last 12 months, Action Fraud says it has received 83,822 online shopping fraud reports, with reported losses reaching around £62.3 million.
Adam French, consumer rights expert at Which?, said: “Online purchase scams are taking place on an industrial scale, with scam victims suffering significant financial and emotional harm."