Flurry of scam letters

NUMEROUS locals received copies of the same fraudulent letters last week.

Steve Mullins and Dee Eddy approached the Collie Police Station with concerns for their personal information.

The letters were from the company WEX in Melbourne, and urged the recipients to arrange payment to avoid outstanding balances.

Mr Mullins was the first to take his letter to the police station.

He said he knew upon opening it that something was wrong.

Police looked at the document and said it was a scam, he said.

Dee Eddy became concerned when her daughter, Hayley, received the same letter.

Mrs Eddy visited the website provided in the letter and said it confused her.

“The website was all about travel payments, and I know Hayley hasn’t travelled in a long time,” she said.

The website looked legitimate, she said. She called them and was greeted by an automated message.

“I was on hold and it said I was in a queue, which is something you hear from legit businesses like Telstra," she said.

Mrs Eddy said she began to feel suspicious.

“Something in my gut was saying ‘this is wrong’ so I hung up and called the police,” she said.

Mrs Eddy said she is concerned other residents may receive similar letters and will not be so cautious.

“There are people out there who will fall for it,” she said.

Collie police acting senior sergeant Alan Dean said locals should remain vigilant. “Our advice is to simply ignore the letters and dispose of them,” he said.

GFC prepared the 2018-2022 Collie River Revitalisation Strategy which was adopted by council.

At the time it was adopted, that report raised a lack of quality control and monitoring of the river, especially with the end of the mine dewatering program. It recommended that a monitoring program begin by March 2019 to record river levels, water flow, and the level of nitrogen, phosphorous and salinity at Lynn Street, Venn Street, Minningup Pool and Roberts Rock.

Concerns raised at the forum included the poor state of the river through town, the environmental impact of drains including high nutrient levels, dead trees, silting and aquatic weed invasion.

Suggestions that the Venn Street weir could have led to the apparent increase in the number of dead trees in the river were refuted, as was a suggestion that the river had low levels of oxygen.

Consultants said the level of salinity was more of a cause for concern.

The consultants said that they will return to Collie to undertake further research and to hold public meetings before submitting their final report to council.