NEWPORT East MP Jessica Morden has joined forces with former Strictly Come Dancing judge Len Goodman in support of Santander’s Scam Avoidance campaign, which aims to address the issue of scams targeted at the over 60s.

Earlier this year, Len became the first graduate of Santander’s SAS (Scam Avoidance School), a free class offered all over the UK to help people avoid being taken in by scammers. The initiative was launched by the bank in March and since then around 800 classes have been held at branches and other local community centres across the UK, taking around 12,000 people through a syllabus of how to avoid online, impersonation, cashpoint and card cons.

The Scam Avoidance School was developed by Santander in partnership with fraud expert Dr Paul Seager, psychology lecturer at the University of Central Lancashire and followed research by Age UK highlighting how older people are one of the most at-risk groups for being scammed – upwards of five million over 65s have been targeted by scammers.

Additional research by Santander has revealed that 63 per cent of the over 60s in Wales are worried about the threat of scams and the overwhelming majority (86 per cent) in Wales believe more needs to be done to help their age group learn about scams to avoid having their money and identities stolen.

Jessica Morden MP said: “Scammers often cruelly target the most vulnerable in society, and older people in particular. No one is immune to scamming though, and prevention through awareness is the best way to avoid becoming a victim of a scam.”

Len Goodman, SAS alumnus, said: “It seems like scammers are everywhere today, using all kinds of sneaky tricks to scam us over 60s – whether it’s with emails, cold calls or even at the cash machine. But enough is enough. People of my age – we’ve got to have our wits about us, be more aware and more alert to scams so we can quickstep our way around the dangers and keep our bank accounts safe. The Scam Avoidance School was a real eye-opener for me: I learned a lot about how to avoid scams and I want to pass on this knowledge to as many people as I can.”