The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) is holding a live online webchat to help the public beat conmen. As part of Scam Awareness Month, the webchat will be hosted by scam expert Mike Haley, who will take questions on how to avoid being the victim of a scam.

The British public loses £1bn a year to scammers. We’ve all had crude emails urging us to let deposed African dictators rest their money in our accounts, but many people are also caught out by far more sophisticated scams. For example, pyramid investment schemes appear lucrative and can be very hard to identify as fradulent.

The OFT has teamed up with trading standards departments, Citizens’ Advice, the police, charities and neighbourhood watch schemes to publicise the elements most scams have in common. A list of the top ten scams has also been published.

The webchat will take place at 4pm on Friday 18 February. To submit a question in advance email questions@webchats.tv, or log on at 4pm to www.webchats.tv.