"Shocking" Level Of Scams

Citizens Advice wants everyone in Scotland to become a whistleblower to fight scammers.

The charity received almost 6,000 reports of scams in 2013-14.

Just under 5,000 of those were reported in the six months between April and December.

Bogus doorstep callers were reported at a rate of 10 per week.

Fraser Sutherland from the charity said: “It's shocking to think that so many Scots are facing this level of crime. The number of scam cases we saw last year was high, but this year it looks set to be even higher.

“In one sense this indicates that scam victims are coming forward and reporting it perhaps more than in the past, and that is of course a good thing. However, research has shown that only 5% of people who are hit by a scam are likely to report it, so that suggests we still have a huge amount of work to do to persuade people to keep coming forward.

“Because scams are crimes. If someone came up to you and took money from your pocket, you would report them to the police. So why shouldn’t you do that if they try to steal your money online or over the phone or with a letter? Reporting a scam can help us stop it happening to someone else. 

We want everyone in Scotland to be a whistle-blower in the fight. 

The body hopes a new TV series “Hopefully the new STV series will bring a renewed focus to this fight. We have been happy to work with the producers and we know that many other consumer agencies have too. It’s a broad-fronted effort to encourage people to be more vigilant, and to report fraud when they experience it.  
 
“Because scams are crimes. If someone came up to you and took money from your pocket, you would report them to the police. So why shouldn’t you do that if they try to steal your money online or over the phone or with a letter? Reporting a scam can help us stop it happening to someone else. We want everyone in Scotland to be a whistle-blower in the fight.