The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) has launched a Scam Awareness Month to highlight the scale of the scam problem in Britain. According to their research, over 4 million adults have been scammed with a third of these people losing money. In the last 12 month around 2 million people are said to have been victims of scamming. Typically the postal service, e-mail and internet are the main vehicles used to reach victims in an attempt to mislead them and force them to part with their money.

Although e-mail has become the preferred method for those involved in running scamming schemes, the use of social networking sites like Facebook is becoming more popular. Another development is the requests for personal information as opposed to money, which can be then be used to commit identity fraud.

The scheme, called Scamnesty, calls on consumers to drop scam mailings they have received into designated 'Scamnesty' bins or boxes at local libraries and public areas across the country. Help and practical advice as to help people avoid scams will also be on hand.