More than 1 in 10 people in the town of 11,000 were fooled into handing over money to premium rate phone lines, foreign lotteries and pyramid selling.

The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) claim that 6.5% of adults in the UK fall victim to marketing scams each year, meaning Oldham is nearly double the national average.

Oldham Council's Trading Standards Team released the figures in advance of new anti-fraud laws, which come into force on Monday 15th January.

Trading Standards Officers have taken action to tackle dozens of mass marketing scams operating in Oldham in the last year. One scam -- a bogus delivery and premium rate scam -- earned the perpetrators a £10,000 fine and an order to compensate all affected consumers.

Oldham's Head of Trading Standards Tony Allen said: "Developments of technology, such as the internet and cheap international calls mean that organised criminals and vulnerable consumers are in ever closer contact."

Research by the OFT reveals that over 30% of victims of scams will be scammed again within the following year. This is frequently the result of victims having their details sold on to other fraudsters.