Regional Trading Standards Scambuster Teams
12 May 2010: Information on this page relates to policies of the previous government and may not be up to date.
The Department’s 2005 Consumer Strategy "A Fair Deal for All", set out a commitment to pilot regional Trading Standards Scambuster pilots. Therefore £1.5m per year was made available in 2006/7 and 2007/8, to specifically fund Scambuster pilots in three areas – North East, South East, and the West Midlands.
Following the success of the pilots, further funding was announced. We have invested approximately £7.5 million over three years in Scambuster teams throughout Great Britain.
The teams are based in:
- Solihull - covering the West Midlands (former pilot)
- Middlesbrough - covering the North East of England (former pilot)
- Leatherhead and Chelmsford - covering the East & South East of England and London (former pilot)
- Newport and Conwy – covering Wales
- Mansfield – covering the East Midlands
- Bristol – covering the South West of England
- Dundee and Motherwell – covering Scotland
- York – covering Yorkshire & Humberside
- Liverpool – covering the North West of England
The teams work with local authorities and other enforcement agencies such as the Police, HM Revenue & Customs and the Benefits Agency to target the hardest to tackle scams and rogue traders that set out to defraud and rip people off.
Examples of the types of things the teams will tackle are:
- doorstep crime
- car sales and servicing
- deceptive selling techniques
- home working and other ‘get rich quick’ schemes
- ‘cowboy’ builders doing shoddy and unnecessary work
- large scale organised counterfeiting operations
If anyone has information about a scam or thinks they are the victim of a scam then they should contact Consumer Direct on 08454 040506 or via their website: www.consumerdirect.gov.uk.
Consumer Direct provides clear, practical and impartial advice to consumers. The Consumer Direct website also provides useful information on how to spot a scam.
