The Government’s 2005 Consumer Strategy ‘A Fair Deal for All’, set out a commitment to Regional Trading Standards Scambuster teams.

These teams concentrate on doorstep crime, cowboy builders, online scammers, “get rich quick” schemes, large scale scams and more. They work with other agencies to bring the scammers to justice and have had much success in stopping scammers.

e.g. The Scambuster Wales Team, established by Wales Heads of Trading Standards, was launched in April 2009 and is managed from City of Newport Trading Standards with teams of officers based in the North and South of Wales. The team is comprised of dedicated Trading Standards Officers and experienced ex Police Officers, who work alongside officers from the Police, HM Revenue & Customs and other enforcement agencies. They work across local authority boundaries focusing on the hardest to tackle scams and rogue traders that set out to rip people off.

The team has demonstrated new ways of working through targeted, proactive, intelligence led enforcement. There is now much closer co-operation and data sharing between trading standards and other agencies, partly due to the level of criminality the team has investigated.

Q. What do the scambusters team do that trading standards services can’t?

Dishonest activity is not confined by local authority boundaries. The Scambuster team has the ability to work across a region to tackle the more serious cases. Level 2 criminality describes crime which crosses local authority boundaries. The team aims to tackle such criminality by working on behalf of individual local authority Trading Standards Services. In some cases the team acts as an additional resource or it can be tasked by individual services to carry out investigations on their behalf.

Q. How can I get in touch with the Team?

Check on the Internet – http://www.nationaltradingstandards.uk/work-areas/scambuster-teams/ shows a list of the scambuster teams.

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