Safer Melbourn

cambridgeshire

SCAMS – What to look out for

Scammers will use every trick in the book to get you to part with your cash including: • You have won a lottery, sweepstake or competition… but you have to send money • Money you have won is being held in a holding company… but you have to send money • Somebody has left you an inheritance… but you have to send money • A clairvoyant can stop bad luck or direct good luck towards you… but you have to send money • There is a ‘secret’ deal which will make you rich… but you have to send money

Scammers send out catalogues selling food, pills, potions, jewellery, clothes, items for home and garden. They guarantee a prize to those who order and make it appear like you are the only one to be getting this amazing offer. They never send the promised prize (though some do send cheap goods to keep the victim on the ‘hook’). Instead they send out more promises to get more orders!

Criminals claim to be Debt Recovery Agencies, threatening court action if a BOGUS overdue utility bill isn’t paid within 7 days. A great many trusting elderly people fall for this scam.

Charity Scam: Criminals send out ‘begging’ letters from fictitious charities, they often use distressing photos, in an attempt to pull at the heart strings of caring people.

Scammers send authentic looking scam mail from Banks & Building Societies asking for personal information and/or cash. It’s more prolific via email, called phishing, but it’s still being sent out via the post.

They are forever coming up with new and more convincing scams so it’s important to be vigilant both for you and loved ones.

NON EMERGENCY PHONE NUMBER 101

MINICOM helpline for the deaf and hard of hearing, anywhere in the force area: 01480 422493 RNID TypeTalk is a national telephone relay service which enables deaf, deafblind, hard of hearing and speech impaired people to communicate. To access the service dial: 0800 515152 Emergency 999

www.melbourncambridge.co.uk/safermelbourn/

Do you want to know more about protecting yourself from scammers, rogue traders and irresponsible lenders – and how to stop them?

Consumerhub is the Citizens Advice ‘Consumer Empowerment Partnership’ for the East of England. Led by a team based at Cambridge CAB working closely with other CABs EastTrading Standards Officers, Consumerhub is creating a network of advice agencies, financial institutions, retailers and local authorities to make people aware of their consumer rights.

Consumerhub use a combination of social media, press campaigns, community events and education programmes to alert people to scams that are affecting local communities, helping to make sure that we are all better protected from these criminals.

The website contains lots of useful information about scams, money, and your rights as a consumer when buying goods and services.

And whether you work for an advice agency or you are an individual consumer, you can sign up to our Consumerhub blog to receive regular updates from partner organisations about illegal activities in your neighbourhood.

You can also use the blog to report any scams in your area.

If you have a consumer problem, contact the Citizens Advice Consumer Service on 08454 040506 or visit the website at www.citizensadvice.org.uk. 27 common scams to avoid

There has been a lot of media attention about the most common scams to watch out for. 1 Fake Green Deal sales 2 Unnecessary damp proofing 3 Home maintenance services 4 Food sales 5 Fake energy-saving gadgets 6 Fake dating 7 Council tax refunds 8 Council tax discount 9 Dodgy job website/recruitment

www.citizensadvice.org.uk

10 Bogus pay cheque 11 Training course claim 12 Prize scam 13 Bad investments 14 Loan arrangers 15 Pension problems – ‘The Pensions Helpline’ 16 PPI refunds 17 Tax refunds 18 Unhealthy sales 19 Noise rebatement 20 Missed payments 21 Telephone debt 22 Truant’s fee – ‘Education Welfare Service’ 23 Courier scams 24 Holiday help from ‘friends’ 25 Virus hoax – ‘Microsoft Windows Support’ 26 Medical emergency abroad 27. Rogue traders

If you encounter any of the above scams you should report them to the following organisations: Action Fraud 0300 123 2040, Your local Trading Standards Office via Citizens Advice 08454 04 05 06, Your local police station, using nonemergency number 101.

Police warn people of new ‘Courier Scam’

A sophisticated type of fraud is on the rise across the UK - where people are telephoned by fraudsters and tricked into revealing their PIN and handing over their bank card to a courier.

Pay Your Way is working with The UK Cards Association and Financial Fraud Action UK to raise awareness of how to avoid the ‘Courier Scam’.

More than £1.5 million has now been lost to the scam, with the same amount – £750,000 – stolen in the first four months of 2012 that was stolen during the whole of 2011. This equates to a three-fold increase in this crime.

The scam involves a person being called by someone claiming to be from their bank and told that their debit or credit card needs collecting.

The caller suggests the person hangs up and calls the bank back to ensure the issue is genuine, but stays on the line; tricking the person into thinking they’re calling their bank.

Revealing your PIN

The fraudster will then ask the person to key in their PIN number, before sending a courier to collect the card. The victim is told the card is going to the bank to be changed but is actually delivered to the fraudster to use.

According to figures released by Pay Your Way, over three quarters of the UK (76%) feel confident they would be able to spot a fraudulent telephone banking call.

However, after hearing how the Courier Scam works, over half (56%) of the 4,000 people surveyed were surprised by how sophisticated it is, one third (33%) worried they were more vulnerable than they thought and four fifths (80%) felt that anyone could be a potential victim to the fraud.

With 91% feeling that older adults would be particularly at risk, Pay Your Way is encouraging people to make sure that older relatives and friends are also aware of the scam in order to stamp out this kind of fraud and help older generations to keep their finances secure.

For further information visit the Payments Council website www.paymentscouncil.org.uk/payment_advice/pay_your_ way_portal/.

To report a fraud, call Action Fraud on 0300 123 2040 or use the online fraud reporting tool.

Mobile phone contract scam

A member of the Consumerhub team was hit by a identity scam in May.

The scammer had stolen their identity and used their name and address to pass their credit check for a mobile phone contract. The scammer had then used a bogus bank account to open the contract. They would have then been presented with a phone that they could sell on before anyone would find out about the stolen identity.

The downside of this is the person whose identity is stolen is then responsible for the contract and could be accountable for the future charges if this is not reported.

If you receive a bill related to a contract you haven’t got, report it immediately to the phone provider (they should investigate), your bank and Action Fraud www.actionfraud. police.uk.

Car Incident Telephone Scam

There is a scam circulating where members of the public receive a call or text from an unknown number saying they believe ‘you have recently been involved in a minor road traffic accident in the last couple of months’. Often the receiver of the call hasn’t had a road accident and the caller is trying to scam them into a fake insurance claim. They’re always very polite and professional sounding.

The text could mention an actual figure, such as ‘you have £2514.36 outstanding on your recent road traffic accident. Reply to claim’.

The best way to deal with these types of cold-callers is to terminate the phone call as soon as possible, and in the case of nuisance texts just ignore them and delete.

You can also register with the free Telephone Preference Service (TPS) www.tpsonline.org.uk. Although this service won’t stop scammers, Which? research has found that signing up to the TPS cuts cold calls by around a third.

If you experience any type of scam, be sure to report it to us. For more information on reporting scams, please visit www.consumerhSTOPub.org/?page_id=187.