The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) has issued a warning
to consumers, urging them to be wary of e-mail, text and fax scams.
The DTI said it aims to raise awareness of the problem and help the
public recognise the warning signs.
With 45% of UK households connected to the internet and
two-thirds of the country's population having mobile phones, the
fraudsters are now given new opportunities "without having to knock
on a door", the DTI said in its statement.
Scams are often designed to dupe the recipient into dialling a
premium rate phone line. In one such scam, dealt with by telephone
regulator ICSTIS, mobile users received text messages saying "I
fancy you" and they were invited to find out who the sender was by
calling a premium rate number without sufficient information about
call charges and how the service operated.
In another scam, unsolicited e-mails claimed to be from someone
who had seen the recipient's details on a dating site and implied
that the recipient had been corresponding with the sender for some
time. After several e-mails the sender invited the recipient to
contact by calling a dating line operating on a premium rate
number.
According to the DTI, some people reported that they received
the same text message up to 40 times a day. The DTI said it is
encouraging people to report scams so that action can be taken to
crack down on the perpetrators.
