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By Steve Ranger, 22 September 2005 14:10

NEWS The UK government has launched a new 'scambusters' team to target the worst mass-marketing scams aimed at consumers.

It is estimated that UK consumers lose up to £1bn per year to a variety of scams which exploit low-cost, mass-marketing techniques - such as email and phone - to target the unwary.

Examples include bogus prize draws and lotteries, premium-rate prize promotions, psychic mailings and miracle health cures, according to the Office of Fair Trading (OFT), which has launched the new Scams Enforcement Group.

The team will bring together law enforcement agencies, including trading standards and the National Criminal Intelligence Service, which will exchange information on new scams and co-ordinate their response. It will target the worst scammers and work with postal operators, accommodation address agencies and other service providers to disrupt scammers' routes to market.

OFT director of consumer regulation enforcement, Christine Wade, said in a statement: "Scams are big business. The OFT's new team will target deceptive schemes that exploit consumer vulnerabilities to con people out of their money."

The OFT said it has had some successes already, including stopping traders from sending out misleading and unsolicited prize draw mailings to entice people to phone a premium rate number. It has also halted online matrix schemes which promised people the chance of getting gifts such as mobile phones in return for purchasing a low value product.