Debt Alert: 10% of Brits hooked by scams

Nearly one in ten adults has responded to a scam in their lifetime, often risking serious debt problems.

The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) revealed today that almost half of those that had responded to scams – such as the infamous 'Nigerian prince' email – had lost more than £50 as a result.

Even more shockingly, around 200,000 scam respondents had lost more than £5,000.

The watchdog is now launching a 'scamnesty', urging consumers to dump their dodgy correspondence into designated boxes in libraries, public areas and online.

They also warned that while 73 per cent had received scam emails, consumers should also be vigilant of messages via post, text and social media websites such as Facebook.

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