Another selection of scams that have been reported to Trading Standards –

 

  • If you are an administrator of a Facebook page be careful when being asked, or giving permission to post adverts for events such as Christmas Fayres, we have received reports that these may be scams and the poster is giving a price for stall holders and requesting private messaging to arrange, equally if you are a trader who attends these events make sure that you are arranging this with a genuine organiser. In each case do some checks with local Town or Parish Councils or the manager of the location to ensure that this is a genuine event and not a scam
  • A resident has reported receiving a text asking him to call a phone number regarding his water bill. If you are concerned that this might be genuine and there might be a problem find your own number for Southern Water and contact them this way, DON’T ring any number given to you by the caller.
  • A resident has received a message from John Lewis alerting them to a potential scam where couriers have been visiting or making contact with their credit card customers saying there’s a problem with the card and asking them to hand it over – this is Courier Fraud NEVER hand your card over to anyone even if they say they are the Police.
  • We have had reports regarding a phone call alleging to be from a power company, they warn of storms causing possible outages and ask you to press 1 if you understand. This number has been checked on Who Called Me and has over 1000 comments confirming it as a scam number often calling in the middle of the night!
  • And finally a scam caller purporting to be from the “dis-repair” team regarding the backlog of disrepair to council housing since Covid. The resident told him she didn’t live in a council property and he hung up. On checking Who Called Me this mobile number had been used for a variety of scams.

 

Remember: any call out of the blue is likely to be a scam, scammers will put you under pressure to respond – take your time and do some investigating yourself

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