By Isle of Wight Observer
With the recent flooding and Black Friday and Christmas coming up, this month I want to talk about the work that is happening to protect residents and businesses from scams and fraud.
The Trading Standards team within the Isle of Wight Council is responsible for a wide range of consumer protection legislation.
The team joined forces with the police, fire and rescue, Age Friendly Island and Citizens Advice Bureau to form a partnership called IWASP (Isle of Wight Against Scams Partnership). These organisations work together to better protect people on the Island from scams, doorstep crime, and fraud and to support victims. This partnership has now grown to include forty-two partners. The aim of the partnership is to prevent and protect, identify, and record through to enforcement, to provide access to justice and restoration. Partners who are part of this partnership are committed to achieving these objectives.
In 2022/2023 we were able to save residents £212,995 because of interventions. This is a combination of scams in which we have intervened, along with assisting consumers in achieving redress in other consumer-related issues and fraud.
Anyone can be a victim of scams and fraud, we need to improve our knowledge so we can learn about the warning signs, to better protect ourselves and others.
If this has affected you or you need any help, please do not hesitate to contact me, do not suffer in silence. Reach out; we are here to support you.
To learn about the warning signs there is a short 15-minute course that can be taken. It is delivered by Friends Against Scams. I have done the training myself and feel it is so beneficial. Just go to iow.life/friendsagainstscams.