Trading Standards South West (TSSW) and Heart of the South West Trading Standards (HotSWTS) have launched a new online toolkit designed to help students and young people avoid being scammed.
The Student Scams Toolkit provides advice to young people on the top six scam categories for their age group: rental scams, finance scams, lottery scams, dating scams, employment scams and online shopping scams.
Resources include a video highlighting the help available to students, as well as useful links and information guides.
A 2022 survey found that a third of students had a personal experience of being scammed – and across the south west last year young people aged 18-22 lost a total of £73,361,101 to fraudsters.
Janet Quinn, Lead Scams Officer for Heart of the South West Trading Standards Service said: “People tend to think that scams mostly affect older people, but students can be a prime target due to the amount of time they spend online and are often vulnerable when moving away from home for the first time. They may be looking to rent their first property or looking for ways to earn money. If you are a parent of a new student, I would encourage you to talk to your children about scams that could affect them and to utilise this toolkit.”
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