Internet scams, postal scams and doorstep crime are more often than not, targeted at adults with care and support needs and all are forms of financial abuse.
These scams are becoming ever more sophisticated and elaborate. For example:
- internet scammers can build very convincing websites
- people can be referred to a website to check the caller’s legitimacy but this may be a copy of a legitimate website
- postal scams are massed-produced letters which are made to look like personal letters or important documents
- doorstep criminals call unannounced at the adult’s home under the guise of legitimate business and offering to fix an often non-existent problem with their property. sometimes they pose as police officers or someone in a position of authority
In all cases this is financial abuse and the adult at risk can be persuaded to part with large sums of money and in some cases their life savings. These instances should always be reported to the local police service and local authority Trading Standards Services for investigation.
Trading Standards offer a lot of information and advice on dealing with doorstep, internet, mail and telephone scams.
The Buy With Confidence scheme features businesses that have been vetted and approved by Trading Standards to ensure that they operate in a legal, honest and fair way.
Action Fraud is the UK’s national police fraud and cyber crime reporting centre.
