On Paul Presents this week we pop over the border to Age UK Oxfordshire, where Mandy kindly joins us to update us on the common frauds  and scams of the moment, affecting mainly,  elderly people.

In one year, a What’s Ap scam affected 1,235 people with a total of 1.5 million being lost. It is a high-risk scam at the moment. Would you know what to do, or would your elderly parents or friends know they were about to be scammed? Mandy kindly talks to us about some common scams, what can be done to prevent them- especially with new technology and how to help someone who has been scammed.

Age UK Oxfordshire are currently offering group talks to raise awareness of scams and also 1 to 1 session for those who have been affected by scams.

The programme, funded by Lloyds Banking Group, will help to prevent older people from falling for scams by increasing their knowledge and confidence to recognise and deal with attempted scams. It will also provide support to older fraud victims recovering after an incident.  

Older people can be particularly vulnerable to fraud and scams, which can have a serious emotional and financial impact, and can damage quality of life and wellbeing for many. 

Sophisticated scams have been on the rise during the pandemic with criminals devising even more ways to target those they believe to be vulnerable. This means it’s even more vital to support those that may be at greater risk.   

Age UK Oxfordshire are really pleased to be launching the Age UK Scams Prevention and Support Programme in the Oxfordshire area. Scams can have a devastating effect on older victims – in England and Wales an older person becomes a victim of fraud every 40 seconds, which is over 800,000 older people every year. This shows us just how important this programme is to try and keep the older people in Oxfordshire as safe as possible when it comes to financial crime.

admin@ageukoxfordshire.org.uk