John Fingleton, chief executive of the OFT, and Gerry Sutcliffe, DTI minister for consumer affairs, launched the joint campaign as part of Scams Awareness Month, an international initiative organised by the International Consumer Protection Enforcement Network.
The campaign is aiming to raise awareness of the estimated £1bn a year that UK consumers lose though scams that exploit low-cost, mass-marketing techniques such as email, text message, post, telephone and internet.
Typical scams include deceptive prize draws and lotteries, misleading premium-rate prize promotions, fake "psychic" mailings, advance fee frauds and bogus work-at-home schemes.
The campaign has been developed with the support of: Trading Standards Departments across the country; Consumer Direct; Which?; the Advertising Standards Authority; Icstis; and other consumer and industry bodies.
More than half-a million-leaflets on how to spot a scam will be distributed nationally. National radio ads, press features, online ads and quizzes will also form part of the campaign.
A step-by-step guide on protecting yourself from scams will be made available by police stations and through Neighbourhood Watch schemes. The first results from the OFT research project into prevalence of scams will be published mid-February and an international sweep to identify "traps online" will take place.
Fingleton said: "Scams damage individuals and undermine confidence in legitimate marketing techniques, harming fair-dealing businesses. Consumers who lose money to scams have very little chance of getting any of it back. So it is essential that, in addition to enforcing the law against scammers, we equip consumers with the skills and knowledge necessary to avoid falling victim to them in the first place."
If you have an opinion on this or any other issue raised on Brand Republic, join the debate in the .
_1.jpg)
.jpg)
