2
Issue 1081
Call 0114 283 1100
3rd October 2019
www.looklocal.org.uk
Local News
BT SCAMMERS FAIL IN £1000 scam on PENSIONER
An elderly widow from Thurgoland was very nearly scammed out of close to £1000 by a scammer claiming to be from BT openreach, last week.
The caller claimed to know that she was on slow broadband and could get onto a faster service, and that BT owed her over £300 The scammer then claimed he would refund her this money if she could
take a photo of her bank card on her mobile phone and send to him.
After the call which lasted nearly 2 and a half hours, she suddenly realised the call wasn’t right and contacted her bank immediately and saw that £650 and £250 had been taken out of her bank whilst she was on the phone. Thanks to the pensioners quick thinking the bank was able to stop the
15,000ft CANCER CHARITY JUMP
money leaving her account.
The widowed pensioner then contacted the BT fraud dept on the advice of the bank who said this is happening on a large scale. BT give the following advice on their website: Fraudsters are known to make calls claiming to work for BT, when it’s actually a scam. They may ask you for personal information, want
access to your computer and in some cases, ask for your bank details. Don’t be fooled, this is fraud.
We take these cases very seriously. So please let us know if you’ve been the victim of a scam call so we can work to stop fraudsters in their tracks. Scammers are also targeting people who have been affected by the Thomas Cook collapse.
Last year, consumers lost a total of £844.8 million from unauthorised fraud. Top tips to avoid phone scams: Phone and holiday scams Phone scams, disguised as cold calls or even calls from companies you are a customer with, are on the rise with reported volumes increasing every year. Often during the summer months,
LOCAL man Henry Gillespie has won a Housing and Neighbourhood Service’s Green Fingers Gardening Competition 2019 award for his hard work and dedication. Henry, 89, won the award for his greenfingered expertise after transforming and maintaining the raised beds at Balfour House.
Life Coach Deborah Cundy from Oughtibridge Jumps 15,000ft in celebration of 25th of the Weston Park Hospital Cancer Charity.
Top tips for avoiding being scammed over the phone: 1. Never disclose any personal information to anyone asking you to make a transaction over the phone and hang up if they are insistent or rushing
you to make a decision.
2. A genuine bank or organisation will never contact you out of the blue to ask for your PIN, full password or to move money to another account for “safe keeping”. 3. Only give out your personal or financial details to use a service that you have given your consent to, that you trust and that you are expecting to be contacted by.
4. If you’re unsure, hang up immediately and contact your bank using the number on the back of your card or statement. 5. If it looks too good to be true, it usually is. For holiday related calls, research the company using ATOL (Air Travel Organiser’s Licence) and ABTA (Association of British Travel Agents) databases and ask friends if it’s something they’re familiar with.
Sheffield’s awardwinning ‘greenfingered’ gardeners
Green fingered 89 year old wins council gardening competition
Pictured: Deborah Cundy
scammers will cold call or email, pretending to be a travel company, offering low prices on holidays to get hold of your personal info and bank details.
The award that Henry won was Best Sheltered Scheme Raised Planter, judged by Annice Fuller of Sheffield City Council’s Community and Engagement Team. Neighbourhood officers at Balfour
House; Maggie Fagan, Carol Knox and Cheryl Bennett, wanted to thank Henry for his hard work. Maggie told Look Local: “On behalf of all the neighbourhood officers and the residents here at Balfour House, I’d like to thank Henry for all his hard work and dedication. The garden needed a lot of work and Henry has worked really hard to get it up to scratch!” This year’s competition, which attracted entries from tenants, residents and primary schools across the city, culminated in an afternoon of prizegiving this week to thank everyone for their impressive entries. Their hard
work to produce award-winning floral displays over the year was celebrated in Sheffield’s Botanical Gardens, a perfect backdrop for the occasion. There were five prize categories as well as an additional Judges’ Choice award. The judges looked for well laid-out, wellmaintained gardens that contained a variety of healthy, colourful plants and environmentally friendly gardening solutions, such as composting bins, water butts, recycled / upcycled objects used as planters or garden furniture, and gardens that made space for nature by attracting birds, bees and other wildlife. The competition is now in its ninth year and is held
to reward tenants who maintain their gardens to a high standard to improve the appearance of estates. It also promotes the benefits that gardening can have for people’s physical and mental wellbeing and raises awareness of environmentally friendly and sust ainable gardening methods. Janet Sharpe, Director of Housing and Neighbourhood Services said: “It was lovely attending the awards ceremony and seeing the dedication and enthusiasm of the tenants and residents who entered the competition. Thank you to everyone who made the event a great success.
