HOUSEHOLDS in Wiltshire are being encouraged to protect themselves against fraud and overpricing tricks used by some rogue traders.

More than 5,000 people fall victim to a scam every day in the UK and five per cent of those cases are bogus callers trying to gain access to a property by pretending to be a professional tradesperson.

In response OFTEC, which represents the oil heating industry, has joined the Citizen's Advice Scam Awareness Month campaign to provide local households with guidance on how to spot a scammer.

Malcolm Farrow from OFTEC said: “Summer is a popular time for people to tackle jobs around the home. This includes having heating systems serviced and many of the 36,000 oil heated homes in Wiltshire will be looking for a technician to carry out this work. Sadly, older people are more frequently targeted by doorstep callers with 85 per cent of scams carried out against those over 65.

Households looking to have their boiler serviced are advised to use a GasSafe or OFTEC registered technician.