North Wales Assembly Member Mark Isherwood is backing a campaign aimed at preventing people being rushed into hasty decisions by scammers and to end victims being hushed into silence by a sense of shame, foolhardiness, or weary acceptance.
Scams Awareness Month 2015 (SAM15) will take place in July with the theme "Don't be Rushed, Don't be Hushed.”
Figures from the Office of Fair Trading suggest people in the UK lose £3.5 billion a year to scammers, with older people who fall prey to scammers losing an average £1,200 each.
Mr Isherwood (pictured left), who is already supporting Age Cymru’s ‘Scams and Swindles’ campaign to generate more protection for older and vulnerable people and their call for no-cold-calling zones, has previously called on the Welsh Government to tackle the inconsistent provision and enforcement of these zones across Wales to protect older people.
He said: “It is vital that we make people aware of the various scams out there which include fake lotteries, psychics and rogue builders.
“More than 100,000 people in the UK are known to be on the infamous postal scams “suckers’ lists” and the number may be far greater.
“At least 50,000 scams were committed against Welsh people in one recent 12-month period and many vulnerable people in Wales are still paying large amounts for shoddy or non-existent work to rogue traders. Hopefully this latest campaign will make people more aware and reduce the number of victims.”
Gerry Keighley from Age Cymru said: “Age Cymru is working hard to ensure that vulnerable older people are made aware of the threat of scams, especially people who may be isolated, lonely or live in remote communities. We are working with dementia sufferers and their carers to bring home the dangers of scams and we are equally concerned that younger people, especially family members and younger neighbours become more aware of the threat scammers pose to older people.”
No comments:
Post a Comment