I recently attended an event hosted by the Citizens Advice Bureau (CAB to raise awareness of the launch of Consumerhub, which is a Cambridgeshire pilot of a national initiative funded by the CAB to campaign for better consumer rights and to raise awareness of illegal consumer activities. Cambridge City Council supports the CAB, and this year the CAB received a 25% increase in its funding over the next year to more than £200,000 – the single biggest grant from City Council to any voluntary organisation. The recent event shows the CAB’s resources are being put to good use.

The event included a number of short presentations, including one relating to the new Trading Standards initiative called Buy With Confidence, and an excellent presentation from a representative from England Illegal Money Lending Team who spoke about loan sharks.

Once again the anecdotes made the most impact to illustrate what we as a community are up against. The speaker on loan sharks told of a man who borrowed £250 from a friend of a friend, but due to threats and intimidation was forced to keep paying “interest” on the loan for years afterwards, with payments totalling £90,000. The highest APR seen, apparently, was 131,000%.

The last presentation was from Marilyn Baldwin, the founder of the charity Think Jessica, who told the harrowing story of her elderly mother who fell prey to scam mail. Marilyn’s mother Jessica was hounded by scam mail criminals over 5 years up until her death in October 2007. It started with one letter asking for cash, to which Jessica responded. Jessica’s name and address were then put on a “sucker’s list” of people likely to respond to requests for cash. According to Marilyn, Jessica received 30,000 scam letters from around the world in the 5 years leading up to her death and sent off some £50,000 to bogus lottery officials and clairvoyants. Her family tried to make her understand that she was being scammed but Jessica refused to believe it. In response to this ordeal Marilyn set up the charity Think Jessica to help other victims of scam mail.

If you know someone who could use the help of the Consumerhub, visit their website for more information.

– Cllr Andrea Reiner