CEL Solicitors, which specialises in no-win, no-fee, fraud and scam claims, is proud to become a Friends Against Scams (FAS) organisation. It now joins over 300 businesses from across the UK that have pledged to help raise awareness of fraud and scams.
Set up by the National Trading Standards’ scams team, Friends Against Scams aims to prevent people from becoming scam victims by making them aware of the different types of scammers operating in the UK.
Launched in 2016, the initiative set the goal of achieving one million friends, which it achieved this year thanks to the support of its partners and supporters.
So what is Friends Against Scams?
Friends Against Scams is an initiative to make fraud a local, regional and national talking point. It hosts awareness sessions and offers online learning on topics from how to spot a scam to how to support a victim. Its goal is to ensure that, with increased knowledge and awareness, fraud becomes part of people’s everyday conversation so that families, friends and neighbours can protect themselves and each other from fraud.
What does Friends Against Scams do?
Friends Against Scams’ work includes: identifying victims of scams; intervening to stop scam victims from being re-targeted; investigating criminal activity; informing local authorities and agencies of their findings and influencing people and stakeholders to take action against scammers at a local, regional and national level.
How can I support Friends Against Scams?
Become a Scam Marshall:
If you’ve been personally affected by scammers then you could become a Scam Marshall. A Scam Marshal is someone who’s been targeted by scammers and wants to use their experience to help others. This might include talking about scams in your local community or sending any scam mail that you receive to National Trading Standards’ (NTS) scams team so that it can be used in future investigative work.
Join Friends Against Scams:
If you’ve not been personally affected by scammers, or aren’t sure about becoming a Scam Marshall, then you can join Friends Against Scams. This will give you access to further information about scams and how to report them. You can access this information in a number of ways, including: watching a video (including a British Sign Language interpreted video), taking part in an interactive online session, or attending an in-person session for groups. You can then share this information with your network if you wish.
Become a SCAMChampion:
If you join Friends Against Scams and want to do more, then you can become a SCAMchampion. This will give you access to further resources, which will enable you to host your own scam awareness sessions in your local community or workplace. As a SCAMchampion, you will also be invited to attend an additional session to give you a greater understanding of the laws surrounding scams and fraud as well as some presentation tips.
Become a Friends Against Scams organisation:
If like us, you’re a company that is passionate about raising awareness of fraud and scams then you can become a Friends Against Scams organisation. At CEL Solicitors we see first-hand the devastating effect scammers have on their victims. We’ve therefore pledged to raise awareness of this important initiative and will continue to help victims through fraud and scam claims.
