TOOWOOMBA resident June Winter is one of a long list of victims affected by cruel scams in the Garden City.

A bill of $400 came in her letterbox a few weeks ago asking her to pay for an advertisement which the company claimed she placed in The Underprivileged Children's Guide.

"I was unaware that I had even put an ad in this publication and was continually harassed by a female operator asking for the money to be paid," she said.

"The female operator said I had agreed on the ad three months ago and I was sure this wasn't the case. A booklet with my business name was sent out to me a few days later.
 
I realised that there were more Toowoomba businesses featured."

She contacted the various business owners who were all unaware of the publication.

"Everyone I contacted was furious about what had happened and had also been harassed by a female operator to pay the bill," she said. "I even searched for the company, but found that it ceased to exist. I contacted Fair Trading and I am waiting for their response."

Member for Toowoomba North Kerry Shine has warned Toowoomba residents not to get caught by scams. He has launched Fraud Fortnight and said the campaign aimed to raise awareness about the serious threat to personal identity and financial security posed by scams.

"The Office of Fair Trading received more than 1625 complaints about scams last year with 217 coming from Toowoomba alone," Mr Shine said.

"These figures are only a fraction of the number of scams we know are circulating in the community.

"Many victims of scams don't report the crime because they feel they've been duped and they're willing to bear the amount of money lost out of fear of embarrassment.

"Fraudsters can make tens of thousands of dollars from unsuspecting victims and they don't care who they target."

The top five scams reported in Toowoomba are fake lotteries, chain letters, invoice fraud, which targets business through fake advertising and directory listings, advance fee fraud (also referred to as Nigerian scams) and gambling software.