Mass marketing fraud

Mass marketing fraud is when you receive an uninvited contact by email, letter, phone or adverts, making false promises to con you out of money.

Mass marketing fraudsters try to lure victims with false promises of large cash prizes, goods or services in exchange for upfront fees, or what they call taxes or donations.

Mass marketing scams are also known as consumer frauds. They could involve:

• someone pretending to sell something they don’t have. The fraudster takes your money without giving anything in return for it
• a fraudster supplying goods or services which are of a lower quality than those paid for, or failing to supply the goods and service bought altogether
• someone trying to persuade you to buy something you don’t really want using oppressive marketing or sales techniques.

Common mass-marketing scams include:

• Foreign lotteries and sweepstakes
• 419 letter scams
• Charity scams
• Romance scams
• Boiler room or share sale fraud

What should you do?

If you think you’ve been a victim of a mass-marketing scam, contact Action Fraud by filling out our online fraud reporting tool. Alternatively, call us on 0300 123 2040.