Scammers

Hundreds of thousands of people fall victim to scams in the UK every year. Many are run from criminal call centres in India, where teams of fraudsters operate around the clock. Now Panorama has obtained hacked CCTV footage from inside one scam call centre that shows exactly how it works. Reporter Rajini Vaidyanathan tracks down the man behind the crime and the British victims who have been conned.

Is Britain a fraudster's paradise? Or are the authorities stemming the tide of scams besieging Britain. Adam Shaw investigates.

From the 'three cup trick' to the 'bogus cop' scam, to the sophisticated online computer scams that cost Britons an estimated £3.5 billion a year, it seems scammers are everywhere. This one-off special reveals the tricks of a trade so widespread that it represents a crime epidemic in the UK. Half the population was targeted by would-be scammers last year - on the street, in their homes and online. But not everyone has given up in the face of this scamming crime wave.

Their voices are persuasive, their emails insistent and they have proven to be remarkably successful at conning countless people into handing over their money. Internet scamming began in the early days of email with appeals from Nigerian 'princes' asking for help to regain their missing money. From those amateurish beginnings, the scammers watched, learned and refined their techniques. What started out as a simple scam from West Africa has now morphed into a global enterprise, conning people on an industrial scale.

How to spot and stop scammers and hackers.

Travel hacks on avoiding scams. Vulnerability | Travel tips: spot a con artist, SAVE MONEY & have travel security.