Scams Unmasked, published this Sunday, is written for two readers: those who have been deceived, and the families quietly worried about them.
One in three UK adults would feel uncomfortable telling even their friends they had been scammed. Fewer than half would feel comfortable telling their own family. That silence, a new book argues, is exactly what allows fraud to keep working.
Scams Unmasked – Inside Modern Fraud: Stories of Trust, Loss and Control, by writer and filmmaker Ashford Menezes, officially launches on Sunday 24 May 2026. The paperback is available now on Amazon, with the Kindle edition available to pre-order ahead of release.
The book tells seven fictionalised stories inspired by common fraud patterns seen across the UK: a retired man facing a fake tax demand, a nurse deceived by a man she never met, a café owner paying out for a lottery she never entered. Each character is fictional. Each pattern is familiar. And each story sits with the moment fraud-awareness campaigns sometimes skip, i.e. not only the deception itself, but the shame and silence that follow it.
“Most scam advice tells people what to look for,” says Menezes. “But the most common thing people say after being defrauded is, ‘I should have known.’ That sentence is the second loss. It keeps victims silent, and silence is what protects the criminal. I wanted to write something that takes the shame away and gives families a way to talk about this before it happens.”
Menezes wrote the book for what he calls “two readers”: the person who has already been scammed and feels they cannot speak about it, and the adult son or daughter worried about an ageing parent.
“There is a conversation a lot of families want to have and don’t know how to start,” he says. “The seven stories are designed to be that conversation. Something you can read together.”
Presented through narrative storytelling rather than a traditional how-to format, Scams Unmasked explores how fraud works through trust, pressure, fear, hope and control. It looks at why scams can feel believable in the moment, and why shame often becomes part of the fraudster’s power long after the money has gone.
The book arrives as fraud continues to affect people across the UK. Criminals stole more than £629 million from UK consumers in the first half of 2025 alone, according to UK Finance, with reported cases surpassing two million during that period.
The paperback edition of Scams Unmasked is available now on Amazon, with the Kindle edition available to pre-order ahead of its official release on 24 May 2026. The paperback is also orderable through book trade channels.
