Families are being left to the mercy of scams and unfair trading costing the nation of £15billion a year, warn watchdogs.
The National Audit Office (NAO) says consumer protection is suffering following massive cuts to trading standards services.
Trading standards officers point to the horsemeat scandal, problems with exploding hoverboards and the fires linked to tumble dryers as evidence of what is going wrong.
Families are being left at the mercy of scams and unfair trading costing the nation of £15billion a year after a 56 per cent reduction in trading standards officers since 2009
The number of trading standards officers has been cut by more than half -56per cent – since 2009 and some areas have slashed spending by 60per cent.
'Some services now have only one qualified officer,' said the NAO.
'Despite this lack of funding, local trading standards teams are expected to enforce 263 different pieces of legislation for different government departments with little direction from government on the priority of these.'
It said the system 'has not yet demonstrated that it provides value for money in protecting consumers from modern scams, unfair trading, and unsafe goods'.
The NAO pointed to problems such as mass marketing scams, often involving bogus prize drawn, which are widespread and impact on the elderly and vulnerable.
It said a typical postal scam victim, who is 74 years old and lives alone, will lose around £4,500. 'Many experience psychological problems,' said the NAO.
The watchdog said e-crime is becoming a huge problem with, among other things, criminals defrauding wealthy individuals of large sums of money by selling non-existent investments.
National audit office chief Amyas Morse said Consumer protection bodies have shown they can make good impacts with limited resources
There is a problem of unsafe goods, which can cause injury and fatalities. Common recent examples include make-up that contained carcinogens, counterfeit medicines, and electrical items which caught fire when charging.
And there is a burgeoning black market in counterfeit items.
The NAO said the total cost to consumers in terms of being scammed and let down add up to £14.8billion a year.
By contrast, the NAO said government spending on tackling the problem is just £165 million. Around £125m of that is for council trading standards and £18m to Citizens Advice.
The head of the NAO, Amyas Morse, said: 'Consumer protection bodies have shown they can make good impacts with limited resources.
'As the threats consumers face become increasingly wide-ranging, however, the system has not kept pace with the changes, leaving consumers inadequately protected in a number of areas.'
Chief executive of the Chartered Trading Standards Institute, Leon Livermore, said the public are not getting proper protection.
'The amount spent on trading standards has fallen from £213 million, in 2011, to £125 million today, so it's not surprising the system is struggling to cope,' he said.
'It has left consumers inadequately protected and has helped to set the conditions for issues like the horsemeat and hoverboards scandals and the ongoing problems with Whirlpool and VW.'