JULY is Scams Awareness Month, an initiative led by Citizens’ Advice and Trading Standards.

This year, Citizens Advice compared 3,600 cases involving scams logged between January and April 2017 with the same period in 2016. It found more and more people are being tricked into paying on average, £1,100, for goods and services that do not exist.

These ‘phantom goods’, range from flights to furniture, jewellery and cameras to musical instruments, cars to car insurance and driving lessons.

The scammers commonly advertise goods and services for sale very cheap on social media sites, such as Facebook and Instagram, and online marketplaces, such as Gumtree and Ebay. Scammers will also post fake customer reviews to give the impression they are a reputable trader.

CA research also revealed a 17 per cent increase in people reporting ‘phantom goods’ scams to its consumer service year on year, and a much greater chance of losing money from this type of scam, with 96 per cent of victims losing their money, compared with 55 per cent across all scam types.

In one case, a young man paid £2,000 for car insurance he found on Instagram, bought from a seller recommended by positive comments from other users.

The paperwork he was told would be emailed after he transferred the money, but it never arrived. Another woman paid £5,000 pounds to a fake PayPal website for a houseboat advertised for sale on Ebay after exchanging emails with the fake seller.

Lord Toby Harris, chairman of National Trading Standards advised people to be careful when buying online: “The web and social media platforms have created a new risk for consumers”, he said.

“Criminals are able to set up multiple accounts to sell fake or non-existent products from almost anywhere in the world, concealing their real identity and contact details.”

Top tips on how to avoid buying phantom goods are to research the trader and not to rush into buying an item. For example, if booking a holiday, check that a tour operator is ATOL protected or, if buying a financial product, check the seller is registered with the Financial Conduct Authority.

To be sure, go to www.whois.com to do a domain check on the trader’s web address and make sure the trader’s full address and contact details are listed.

Also, look for the padlock sign in the URL bar on the payment page to show the website is secure.

Always use a debit or credit card to pay for items bought online and avoid paying by bank transfer, as that can be difficult to trace, making it more difficult to get money back.

For advice on the offers contained in an advertisement, or help with how you can get your money back if you’ve been scammed, call Citizens’ Advice’s consumer service on 0345 404 0506 Scams or suspected scams should be reported to Action Fraud by calling: 0300 123 2040 or online at www.actionfraud.police.uk.

• Visit www.waverley cab.org.uk to find out how it can help protect the public.