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TRADING STANDARDS

News

Find out information on each of the articles listed below:

• Top ten scams to look out for
  
• Identity theft is the fastest growing crime in the UK
  
• Court orders trader to stop taking money for work not done
  
• What do Our Users' Think?
  
• Trader Survey
  
• Doorstep Sellers
  
• Warning of Prize Draw Scams

Top ten scams to look out for

 East Ayrshire Council Trading Standards Service is participating in an initiative which will address the problem of scams. UK consumers lose an estimated £1 billion per year to a variety of scams which exploit low cost, mass marketing techniques to target recipients.

A top ten of scams has been produced and consumer should be on the alert for the following approaches: -

· Telephone Lottery Scams – these include the Canadian lottery scam and the El Gordo Spanish lottery scam, which deceptively uses the name of a genuine lottery. Consumers are told they are being entered in a prize draw. They then receive a telephone call congratulating them on winning a big prize in a national lottery, however, before they can claim their winnings, they must send money to pay for taxes and processing fees. The prize does not exist.

· Prize Draws, Sweepstakes and Foreign Lottery Mailings – Many typical scams take the form of prize draws, lotteries or Government pay outs. Most appear to be notification of a prize in an oversees lottery in return for administration or registration fees.

· Premium Rate Telephone Number Scams – Notification by post of a sweepstake or holiday offer includes instructions to ring a premium rate 090 number to claim your prize.

· Investment Related Scams – An unsolicited telephone call offering the opportunity to invest in shares, fine wine, gemstones or other soon to be rare commodities. These investments often carry very high risk and may be worth a lot less than you pay.

· Nigerian Advance Fee Frauds – An offer via letter, e-mail or fax to share a huge sum of money in return for using the recipient’s bank account to permit the transfer of the money out of the country. The perpetrator will either use the information given to empty their victim’s bank account or convince him or her that money is needed up front for bribing officials.

· Pyramid Schemes – Offer a return on a financial investment based upon the number of new recruits to the scheme. Invariably only the people who set up the scheme are able to make any money.

· Matrix Schemes – Are promoted via websites offering high-tech gadgets or free gifts in return for spending £20 or similar on a low value product such as a mobile telephone signal booster. Consumers who buy the product join a waiting list to receive their free gift. In reality, the majority of those on the list will never receive the expensive item they expect.

· Credit Scams – Another advanced fee fraud originating in Canada. Advertisements appear in local newspaper offering fast loans regardless of credit history. Consumers who respond are told their loans have been agreed but before the money can be released they must pay a fee to cover insurance. Once the advanced fee is paid the consumer never hears from the company again and the loan never appears.

· Property Investment Schemes – Would be investors attend a free presentation and are persuaded to hand over thousands of pounds to sign up to a course promising to teach them how to make money dealing in property. Schemes may involve the opportunity to buy properties which have yet to be built at a discount. A variation is a buy to let scheme where companies offer to source, renovate and manage properties, claiming good returns from rental income. In practice the properties are near derelict and the tenants’ non-existent.

· Work-At-Home and Business Opportunity Scams – Operate by advertising paid work from home but which require money up front to pay for materials; or by requiring investment in a business with little or no chance of success.

Councillor Jim O’Neill, Chair of Community Services Committee said:

“Scammers are resourceful, enterprising and manipulative. By exploiting the same routes to market as legitimate business, they damage not only individual consumers, but the interest of fair trading businesses as well. Consumers must be wary of the vast majority of different of scams out there and if they apply the motto “There is no such thing as a free lunch” they will not go far wrong.

If you require further advice or assistance please contact the Trading Standards Service.

Identity theft is the fastest growing crime in the UK

Identity theft is the twenty-first century’s fastest growing crime – and it could happen to anyone with a credit card or a bank account.

The Association of Payment Clearing Services (APACS) estimates that it cost £30m on card accounts last year, a rise of 45% over the previous year, although some think that the real cost is much higher.

The easiest way for someone to get hold of your credit card details is in a shop or restaurant where your card is taken out of your sight for a minute or two. As well as paying the bill, your card could be ‘skimmed’ and the details sold on to criminals who put them onto a counterfeit credit or bank card then happily go off and spend your money.

However, with the growth in telephone and internet shopping, criminals no longer need to get hold of your card, they just need the details, and getting hold of them is easier than you may think.

They can resort to calling you by telephone to check credit card details. These telephone calls can be extremely sophisticated and convincing, and untraceable when you discover later that it wasn’t really your bank or credit card company which called.

Banks and credit card companies occasionally call their customers to verify purchases, but the fake caller is only after your details – especially the three digit security code on the back of your card (although most genuine online retailers require that you give this number to prove that you own the card).

Another approach, known as ‘phishing’ is to contact you online, asking you to contact your bank to clarify some problem or other. The ‘link’ to your bank is conveniently provided in the email, but this doesn’t take you to your bank, it takes you to a fake website (including building societies, credit card companies and online shops) that looks just like the real thing, and you are then conned into divulging your credit card or bank details.

So sophisticated are some criminals that they even notify your bank of a change of address so that your statements go to an empty property and you are none the wiser when your money is fraudulently spent.

So what can you do if you’re a victim of identify theft? Most lenders will refund the money so long as there is no negligence on your part, like giving your card to someone else to use, or keeping a written note of your PIN number. The lenders are also hitting back with new credit cards that have built-in computer chips making them much harder to counterfeit. New, discreet terminals that require you to enter a PIN number (rather than just compare your signature) also helps keep your information secure, but the bottom line is – don’t make it easy for the thief:
* never write down your PIN number – memorise it
* never give your card to another person to use on your behalf
* never let the card out of your sight in shops or restaurants
* shred all personal and financial information – criminals raid rubbish bins looking for credit card and bank statements
* make sure that no one is looking over your shoulder when you withdraw money at a cash machine
* banks and other financial organisations should never call you out of the blue and specifically ask for credit card or bank details, or to confirm passwords. If they do, ask to call them back on the number you have on file from previous statements
* don’t click on a web link included in an unsolicited email, but go directly to the website using the email address you have on file from previous statements
* if you receive a letter telling you that you are the sole benefactor of a recently deceased person, or informing you that you have won a major financial prize, it’s probably not true, especially if the letter asks you to send bank details for the prize money or inheritance to be paid in to
* make sure that the firewall and anti-virus software on your computer is up to date, and keep it up to date with the regular free downloads from the software supplier’s website,

If you are in any doubt or would like further advice contact East Ayrshire Council’s Trading Standards office on 01563 521502.

Court orders trader to stop taking money for work not done

In a landmark decision at Kilmarnock Sheriff Court on 26 November 2003, Sheriff Iona McDonald granted Scotland's first Enforcement Order under the Enterprise Act 2002, prohibiting Saleem Mohammed of 17 Eriskay Place Kilmarnock taking advance monetary payments for the provision of landscaping, gardening, building, brickworking and related services or materials and failing to carry out the services or to supply the materials within a reasonable time, or at all The order is effective throughout the United Kingdom. (details of the Order are appended).

Saleem Mohammed has operated a business for landscaping, gardening, building, brickworking, mono-blocking, slabbing, fencing and related services throughout the West of Scotland for a number of years, advertising under various trading aliases including Ideal Landscapes, S & M Landscapes, Ace Landscapes, Evergreen Landscapes and Driveways, Premier Landscapes and MR MACBLOCK; calling himself, in addition to his own name, "Robert McGill", "Bobby" or "Tony".

The Enforcement Order was sought by East Ayrshire Council Trading Standards Service under Section 217 of the Enterprise Act 2002 based on evidence of his activities over the period March 2001 - September 2003. Twenty six complaints from throughout the West of Scotland related to Mr Mohammed having agreed to carry out landscaping or gardening or such related work and requesting advance monetary payments to do so.

Having accepted the payments he invariably failed to complete the work satisfactorily or at all. One of the more recent cases the Sheriff considered related to a consumer in the south of Glasgow who having paid £1050 as a deposit was left with only three bricks to show for it; another consumer in Kilwinning was £1700 out of pocket when they had to call in a local trader to finish work for which a substantial deposit had been paid.

Explaining the background to the case William Stafford, East Ayrshire Council's Director of Community Services explained "The Enterprise Act is new legislation, Part 8 of which is designed to provide a legal remedy to stop trading activities detrimental to consumers. This particular piece of legislation is an extension to the previous regime of Stop Now Orders (SNORS). However that regime had a limited application to a few pieces of criminal legislation arising out of European Community Directives. Under the new Act action can be taken against a wide range of breaches of consumer statutes or other activities such as in this case, where there has been a continuing failure to complete civil contracts. The legislation only came into effect on 20th June and this is the first Court Order of its type granted by a Sheriff in Scotland. Interestingly, an interim Order in respect of illegal counterfeiting was granted at Ayr Sheriff Court a few days ago.

Mr Stafford continued "Anyone who carries on with a course of conduct detrimental to consumers which has been the subject of an Enforcement Order will find themselves in front of a Sheriff and liable to a fine or even imprisonment, for contempt of court. Prior to this, the only advice we could give aggrieved consumers was to consider taking a civil action against the trader concerned. Hopefully the threat of a large fine or imprisonment will encourage certain rogue traders to clean up their act".

Councillor James Carmichael, Chair of East Ayrshire's Community Services Committee commented, "This new legislation is a useful tool in the weaponry available to Trading Standards to promote consumer protection. It replaces the procedures under Part 3 of the Fair Trading Act 1973 which could take years to process, by which time the trader concerned had often gone out of business or moved on to other activities. The fact that this process has been completed within months of the new legislation coming into force reflects well on the investigation conducted by Trading Standards and the efficiency and effectiveness of East Ayrshire's Legal Services team, who presented the case to the Sheriff Court".

Text of Enforcement Order

The Sheriff granted an Enforcement Order within the meaning of Section 217 of the Enterprise Act 2002 to prohibit the Defender or his agents or servants in the course of his business from:-

(i) taking advance monetary payment for the provision or supply of services relating to landscaping, gardening, building, brickworking, mono-blocking, slabbing, fencing, turfing, tree-cutting, chipping, erecting steps, erecting patios, or any such related services, and failing to carry out the services with reasonable care and skill;

(ii) taking advance monetary payment for the provision or supply of services relating to landscaping, gardening, building, brickworking, mono-blocking, slabbing, fencing, turfing, tree-cutting, chipping, erecting steps, erecting patios, and any such related service, and failing to carry out the services within the time agreed, within a reasonable time, or at all;

(iii) taking advance monetary payment for the supply of materials and failing to supply materials.

What do our customers think?

A self- completion questionnaire was sent to a random sample of 200 users of the Consumer Advice Service to evaluate perception of the service in terms of quality and accessibility. It also sought to establish how users find out about service and identify areas of improvement and service development.

70 returns were received representing a 35% response rate.

A summary of the results is reproduced below.

Anyone who would like a full copy of the results should contact the Trading Standards Service.

Trader Survey

A self- completion questionnaire was sent to a random sample of 200 traders who had been inspected within the previous 9 months. Only 49 returns were received representing a 25% response rate.

The results of the survey are detailed below.

Anyone who would like a full copy of the results should contact the Trading Standards Service

Doorstep Sellers

East Ayrshire Trading Standards have issued a warning to consumers to be wary of claims made by doorstep sellers following reports about high pressure sales techniques being used by some companies.

A Trading Standards Spokesman, said:

"We suspect that some companies may be targeting vulnerable members of the community, particularly the elderly, and using scare tactics to sell expensive products which in many instances may not be necessary.

Our advice to consumers when dealing with doorstep sellers would be to remember the following points:

• Don’t ask a doorstep seller to call unless you’re sure you want to buy.

• Don’t let a caller into your home if you are at all suspicious of them.

• Don’t agree to buy anything until you’ve checked the prices elsewhere.

• Don’t let the seller push you into a snap decision.

• Don’t pay a deposit unless you’re sure you want to buy.

• Don’t agree to have work done on your home without getting a second opinion.

• Don’t be persuaded into buying something you don’t need.

• Don’t listen to scare stories.

If you do buy goods or services costing more than £35 as a result of an unsolicited visit by a doorstep seller then you generally have seven days to change your mind and cancel the contract. Responding to an advertisement in the paper or a leaflet dropped through your door counts as inviting the seller to call. However, if you agree to a visit after the seller rings you up or sends someone round to ask if he or she can visit, you still have the right to cancel within seven days. The seller must give you written details of your right to cancel. Failure to do so is a criminal offence.

In conclusion, he added, my advice would be to ask the following questions before deciding to buy.

• Do I want the goods or services on offer?

• Can I afford it?

• Will I ever use it?

• Is it good value compared with other similar products or services?

• Do I know and trust the seller?

• What will happen if I change my mind or something goes wrong?

• Do I know how to contact the seller again?

• Do I have the right to cancel?

• Is this offer too good to be true?

Remember, you can always say ‘I don’t buy from doorstep sellers’ and close the door. If a doorstep seller refuses to leave, dial 999 and ask for the Police."