Safeguarding Adults Procedures

128 FRIENDS AGAINST SCAMS This national initiative aims to break the silence around being affected by scams and other types of similar financial fraud. Anyone can become a friend against scams, gaining the confidence to spot a scam and those affected by scams, report scams and have the confidence too to talk about scams with other people. To become a friend, complete the simple online training at www.friendsagainstscams.org.uk Annex 1 CASE EXAMPLES Examples of cases where Trading Standards Service may act and support. Mrs ‘H’: 79yrs £1200 At the time she was targeted by bogus property repairmen, Mrs H was suffering from memory loss and had difficulty remembering recent actions. From what can be established, she was cold-called by bogus property repair men and persuaded to pay £1200 in cash upfront for some work to her garage – for which the offenders took Mrs H to the bank to collect the money. Mrs H’s neighbours became concerned at what was going on at the property and called her daughter, who alerted the Police. The attending PC then contacted Trading Standards. Although there was no sign of the offenders at the time of the PCs arrival, it was apparent that such work as had been carried out by the offenders was done very badly, with large amounts of debris and rubble strewn around the front garden. It transpired that the offenders had attempted to get more money from Mrs H that day. Mr ‘G’: 43yrs £25,000+ Mr G has a learning disability and was repeatedly targeted by scam prize draw mail amounting to approximately 100 letters a month. Mr G felt obliged to open the mail and regularly responded to claim the prize winnings. It is not known how much money Mr G had parted with in total for the mail scams, but it is believed to be more than £5000. Recently Mr G has received telephone calls relating to what he was told was his American lottery win of £3,500,000. Carers became aware of Mr G’s visits to international cash transfer facilities at a local convenience store where money was regularly transferred to meet bogus administrative and US Government requirements prior to the release of his lottery winnings. It is believed that Mr G has parted in total with a further £20,000 to secure his lottery win. Mr ‘T’: 70Yrs £2000+ Mr T was persistently cold called by what was believed to be an extended family of doorstep traders who regularly offered to undertake small household jobs that appear to have been charged at greatly inflated prices. Investigation by Trading Standards found a pattern of financial abuse for alleged work that was impossible to prove was ever needed. In fact, anecdotal evidence suggests that faults were introduced to Mr T’s property by the cold callers prior to agreeing verbal contracts for its repair. The first steps taken by Trading Standards was to formally write in Mr T’s best interests to all those involved advising them not to visit Mr T’s property again. Once this letter was issued it was then a specific criminal offence for the traders to return. This stopped the persistent calls immediately while Trading Standards investigated the potential criminal offences.