New 'Scams Hub' initiative for Carmarthenshire

Carmarthenshire Trading Standards and Dyfed Powys Police have joined a nationwide initiative to help the victims of scams.
Officers will be contacting people whose names are on ‘sucker lists’ shared by scammers.
The Service has joined the National Scams Hub which is being funded by the National Trading Standards Board and currently has 66 Trading Standards authorities signed up.
The Hub comes out of a project run by East Sussex Trading Standards aimed at raising awareness of scams and creating links between different agencies to try and spot scam victims.
The aims of the Hub are to introduce a referral system between agencies, gathering intelligence on scams and scam victims, to raise public awareness of damage caused by scams as well as educate victims and potential victims of scams and try to prevent further people suffering from this kind of financial abuse.
Trading Standards Service Manager Roger Edmunds said: “The Hub currently gets intelligence about scam victims across the country from so-called ‘suckers lists’ and is currently working on a list that contains over 100,000 victims’ names.
“There are some 598 residents in Carmarthenshire on this list. Trading Standards in conjunction with Dyfed Powys Police will carry out visits to these residents in order to see if there is any assistance we can offer.
“The work will start with visits this month with residents from Ammanford who are on the list.”
Executive board member for environmental and public protection Cllr Jim Jones said: “This is an exciting initiative to tackle what is a serious problem in Carmarthenshire and across the country.
“The scammers are co-ordinating their activities to share information on people they regard as vulnerable to being defrauded and it is vital that the authorities co-ordinate their action to protect people from these criminals.
“I’m pleased that we are making a start on contacting the local residents whose names have been found on this list.”
Carmarthenshire County Council and Dyfed Powys Police are members of the Community Safety Partnership whose aim is to make Carmarthenshire a safer place for both residents and visitors.