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CORNWALL TRADING STANDARDS “STING” OPERATION ATTRACTS 500 POTENTIAL ‘VICTIMS’

Looking For Financial Freedom? Looking for an opportunity that requires no experience and no product knowledge and yet gives you lucrative commissions and bonuses? If so just visit www.opportunitycornwall.com.


This is an opportunity many of us would delight in. An opportunity to become financially independent and to take control of our lives - but is it too good to be true?

“People should be very wary of claims that large amounts of money can be earned for little or no effort or in an extremely short timescale” explained Dennis Henwood from Cornwall’s Trading Standards Service. “If something sounds too good to be true, then it probably is.”

In an effort to alert the public to the dangers of ‘get rich quick’ scams, Trading Standards has recently run its own ‘sting’ operation. The Service placed adverts for the www.opportunitycornwall.com website in the local papers.

Nearly 500 people visited the site.

Visitors to www.opportunitycornwall.com were greeted with a welcoming page which suggested that they could earn up to £100,000 per year. A further click then took them to the County Council’s own website, onto a page which highlighted the dangers of getting involved with ‘get rich quick’ scams.

“We hope that we managed to educate those people visiting the site about the dangers associated with the ‘get rich quick’ scams and, in doing so, will have prevented them becoming a victim of one. In our experience, the scams only usually work for the organiser, leaving everyone else out of pocket” said Dennis Henwood.

“There are many different types of money-making scams which appear to be genuine and imply how easy it is to make lots of money. But money-making schemes that seem too good to be true usually are, and should be avoided.”

“Our advice to anyone who is considering responding to such an opportunity is to contact Consumer Direct on 08454 04 05 06 first.”

Ken Yeo, Public Protection Portfolio Holder commends the work of the Trading Standards officers in bringing these issues to everyone’s attention. “There are a large number of vulnerable people of all ages in our community responding to these tempting get rich schemes which will only add to their problems.” He added “If in doubt contact Consumer Direct. If you already have financial problems contact your local Citizens Advice Bureau.”