Every now and then, we have a speaker who brings the real world to life in an exciting way. This was certainly true of Janet Reay, Trading Standards Officer for Perth and Kinross, in her presentation on current scams.

Janet has a lot of experience of such operators having worked for many years, qualifying firstly in her home town of Sunderland and latterly in Fife. Since 1996, she has been taking care of the good residents of Perth across a wide range of problems from electrical goods to legal highs.

Janet explained that scams were defined as misleading, deceptive or fraudulent marketing offers. Scams are touching everybody and affecting lives everywhere. Janet further added how the vulnerable people in our society were being preyed on mercilessly by sophisticated operators. The effect is to cause social isolation and embarrassment.

Scams have become more evident since the wide use of the internet made people more available to contact from anywhere in the world. They fit into one of three categories – bogus letters, telephone calls and e-mails. Janet detailed the problems with each category and the best way to deal with them; never give anyone your pin number as that action breaks your contract with the bank. Her talk provided the Members with practical guidelines and useful tips with a list of phone numbers for further help and advice.

Lastly, Janet explained how she had set up a special unit to identify who is being targeted by the scammers. The problem here is that people can be drawn in and become addicted. Her work has been very successful in supporting many people in Perth, work that was very much appreciated by Bob Reid as he thanked Janet for her talk.