OFFICE OF FAIR
TRADING News Release (18/07) issued by The Government News Network
on 8 February 2007
As part of its
Scams Awareness Month, the OFT is warning consumers not to fall
for bogus clairvoyant mailings sent out to thousands of people in
the UK every year.
Letters from so called psychics or clairvoyants offer predictions
or promise healing properties for a small fee. Often these
mailings are aggressive in tone, predicting that something bad
will happen if the recipient does not send them money. Although
they are sent out in their thousands, the mailings are
personalised to make recipients look as if they have been
specially chosen and those who respond can be repeatedly targeted.
In one example uncovered by the OFT a mailing told consumers that
the place they were living in was 'a zone which has been
"booby trapped" by negative waves', and it offered
a solution for a payment of £29.
Extravagant and potentially
misleading claims are also made about rituals the psychic will
undertake or items, such as jewellery, that the psychic will
provide and which it is claimed will bring the recipient good luck
and will ward off evil forces.
'Lucky' items include Esmerelda's 'Money
creating Scarab of the Pharoes', Gabriel d'Angelo's
'Happiness Beamer, Serena's 'Parchment of the
Sacred Olive Branch' , Maria Rosa's 'Bracelet of
Ameno' Lise and Rose's 'Gold Card' and Marie
Desperance's 'Golden Thread'
Recent OFT commissioned research into the impact of mass marketed
scams indicated that more that 170,000 consumers fall victim to
clairvoyant scams every year, losing around £40 million.
The OFT's Scambusters team has written to the following
'clairvoyants' about the potentially misleading content
of their mailings: Chris, Esmeralda, Gabriel d'Angelo, Lisa
and Rose, Maria Rosa, Marie Desperance, Pia Anderson, Rachel,
Serena. None have responded. As a result the OFT is publicising
its actions to allow consumers to make informed choices about
'clairvoyants' who are using PO Boxes as return
addresses for their mailings. It will also be contacting overseas
counterparts to ask them to shut down any post boxes used by those named.
Claims made by those named by the OFT include:
* 'Maria
Rosa' who claimed 'in the next few days you will have
the very tidy sum of £169,000 in your possession'
*
'Gabriel d'Angelo' claimed 'You have to trust
me....BECAUSE YOUR FUTURE AND YOUR HAPPINESS DEPEND ON
IT'
* 'Lise and Rose' claim that 'there
is, in your home, in the very place where you are living, a zone
which had been booby trapped'
* 'Serena'
claimed that 'Your life will be beautiful and you deserve it,
thanks to the Parchment of the Sacred Olive Branch which will
protect you and bring you happiness'.
Christine Wade, OFT Assistant Chief Executive, Consumer Advice
and Trading Standards said:
'These mailings target the
vulnerable and the superstitious by playing on their hopes or
fears. We would urge all consumers targeted by such mailings to
throw them away and not be intimidated into replying and sending money.'
NOTES
1. Scams Awareness Month, is part of an international
initiative organised by the International Consumer Protection and
Enforcement Network. The OFT has enlisted the support of local
authority Trading Standards Services, Consumer Direct, the
Advertising Standards Authority and other consumer and industry bodies.
2. The key message of the campaign is that as scams have become
more sophisticated, new methods are being used to get smart with
scammers, including using new European laws, including the
Consumer Protection Cooperation Regulations, closer co-operation
with authorities, as well as 'name and shaming'
companies and individuals.
3. Recent research commissioned by the OFT involving 11,200
interviews has found that 1,388,000 UK consumers fall victim to
prize draw and sweepstake scams, 400,000 to bogus holiday clubs,
330,000 to work at home scams, 200,000 to miracle health scams,
170,000 to clairvoyant and psychic scams, 110,000 to loan scams. A
copy of the research is available at http://www.oft.gov.uk.
4. Scams are an OFT priority. The OFT launched a Scambusters team
and set up the Scams Enforcement Group with partner organisations
focussing on law enforcement; consumer education; and cooperation
with private sector businesses to disrupt scammers' routes to market.
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