Be Scam Aware!

Trading Standards have seen an increase in doorstep crime.
Consumers are encouraged not to deal with people who cold call at the door and offer to do work, no matter how cheap the deal appears, or how persuasive the seller.
 
Areas often targeted are, cleaning of gutters and roofing work, tree work, gardening and driveway work.    We had an incident last week in Newbury where two males called on properties and advised that they had just carried out work in the road jet washing the roof.  The owner agreed to have the roof done and was then told that there was a “beehive” (their wording!) under the tiles, a tile had come loose and that they needed to have the roof repointed at extra cost.    Fortunately, the residents declined and called the Police.  These were rogue traders and not the company who had carried out work for another resident.  It is not recommended to have a roof jet washed as it takes off the protective coating on the tiles, which could cause leaks.

Nottingham Knockers (nickname as they usually travel down from the North) have again been calling in the area trying to sell over expensive products and advising that they are on an ex-offenders scheme which is untrue.   Full details in the link below:

https://www.oprepeat.co.uk/nottingham-knockers/?fbclid=IwAR3avsZfhTF_vpf5jxW7IIa93OYctIoE0984idWOWfV6hcYHX15tLCadDKo

Several reports still of automated calls from "BT" and "Amazon".  They are stating that you need to press 1 for fraud assistance either for an alleged overpayment, renewal of Amazon Prime contract or underpayment. 

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. 

Also scams purporting to be from HMRC, PayPal, Netflix, TV Licensing, DHL, letters from Overseas regarding inheritance asking for your bank details, EHIC fake websites making a charge for something that is free and the following Sky scam:

Fraudsters pretending to work for Sky have conned victims out of £270,000 through an automated phone call scam.  The fraud uses an automated call, claiming to be from Sky, to induce the victim into agreeing to speak to a call-handler, who will then try to remotely access the victim’s computer so they can steal financial information.  Action Fraud says: "The fraudsters use a variety of lures, such as discounts and free technical support, to get the recipient of the call to 'press 1' at the end of the automated message”.

If you know somebody who may be vulnerable to these types of scams - the answer is a call blocker phone. 

Fraudulent Bank websites are also being set up, so always ensure that you are using the genuine site.

You can find out more about current scams by signing up for the weekly Which free scam alerts via email:    https://action.which.co.uk/page/s/which-scam-alerts  

Finally, besides registering bikes on www.bikeregister.com

New cyclists to be very careful on the road as she has seen a few near accidents involving bikes.