Canadian authorities to aid NI Trading Standards in lottery scam

Trading Standards officers in Northern Ireland have begun working alongside their Canadian counterparts to help tackle a lottery scam which is targeting UK homes.

Thousands of UK residents have fallen victim to the fraudulent lottery schemes which promise winnings from the Canadian national lottery in return for administration or release fees.

Canadian detective Barry Elliot, from the Ontario Provincial Police, will visit Belfast tomorrow alongside Office of Fair Trading (OFT) staff to meet with Trading Standards officers and representatives from other advice agencies to discuss best practice and how close cooperation between the UK and Canada is helping to tackle the problem.

He will also talk about his experience on the Canadian initiative PhoneBusters – a national police scheme set up specifically to target deceptive telemarketing scams.

Head of Northern Ireland's Trading Standards Service, David Livingstone, said Northern Ireland's consumers have increasingly been targeted by people running money-making scams.

"They invariably promise huge rewards in return for sending off either an administration fee or your personal bank account details," Mr Livingstone said.

"We are extremely grateful to Barry for coming to Northern Ireland to share with Trading Standards staff his knowledge and experience in tackling such scams.

"The challenge for Trading Standards is to warn consumers not to be tempted when one of these 'too-good-to-be-true' offers drops through their letter box. Our advice is to treat these offers with extreme suspicion, and consign this type of correspondence straight to the bin."

Colin Brown, Director of Co-regulation, Codes and Coordination at the OFT, said Sergeant Elliot's visit was a key part in keeping the Canadian lottery scam high profile and to share best practice with UK enforcement agencies.

(MB/GMCG)