Trading Standards have a couple of scams to share with you this week –
- A member of our team received an email purporting to be from B&Q – it told you click on a link to claim your prize – a free Stanley socket set! On checking the email senders address it was apparent that this was a scam – best advice is Never click on links in any message you receive
- We have seen information from the Civil Enforcement Association warning of a scam involving paying fake parking fines to fraudsters posing as enforcement agents. Victims receive Notices of Enforcement from various different named companies demanding the payment of unpaid parking debts. The letters replicate Notices of Enforcement issued by the courts that instruct baliffs. These are designed to distress and intimidate you into paying. Be aware that genuine cases will have unique reference number from the court which will be on all correspondence which can be checked independently with the company in question.
- A gentle warning to be wary of charitable donations. Make sure you know where the money is going to and if in any doubt keep it local. We would advise against responding to emails from random people, out of the blue, asking for money to be paid to an online donation, best advice would be to only support somebody doing something for charity if you know them