- A few of our residents have received a scam letter telling them that they have won £900,000 in the FIFA World Cup Lottery Programme. The letter contains reference numbers (for legitimacy) it mentions lots of organisations that all sound very genuine and puts pressure on the recipient to respond or lose out. They give telephone numbers which will probably be premium rate and will inevitably charge you an “admin fee” to release the money – which will never come. This is a classic scam – REMEMBER if you haven’t bought a ticket you cant win and you should never have to pay money to win money!
- We have had a report of a scam phone call advising the resident that she had a tax rebate on previous collected PPI claim due to her and that a cheque would be delivered to her the following week in a yellow envelope all she had to do was to get £200 vouchers from PAYSAFE and the caller put pressure on her to get it immediately. The resident was aware this was a scam and played along asking which company they worked for. The callers put pressure on with increasing number of calls checking that she had the vouchers. Do Not respond to these scam calls, this is courier fraud which is currently on the increase in the South. Anyone who asks you to purchase a voucher to receive some kind of financial payment will be a scammer.
- Be wary of emails purporting to be from TV Licence – if you check the senders email you will see that it isn’t a genuine one. Never click on links in emails asking you to set up or amend payment details
- Be wary of emails purporting to be from a friend or somebody in your email address book, the latest one states that your “friend” will be unable to speak over the phone as they have laryngitis but need to ask you a favour! The scammers are using this ruse so that you wont ring your friend to confirm that its them – Never respond to an email from a friend asking for a favour – pick up the phone and ring them
- More reports of phone calls checking up on insulation and electricity usage – using our concerns over heating costs at this time of year to try to scam us into paying for insulation etc. Do not engage with anyone who has called you out of the blue and do not allow them to carry out a survey on your property. If you are concerned about making your home more energy efficient contact the Footprint Trust in Newport for advice
- Be cautious when buying items on Island facebook sites. Scammers will clone, hack or set up fake accounts offering items for sale or even for free but will then try to take a delivery charge via bank transfer. Do some research, go and see the item, check out the seller and if something seems a bit strange don’t proceed.
- Scammers use large organisations for legitimacy and Amazon seems to be a favourite! A resident has reported that he received a scam call from them asking for money owed – do not respond to these calls – Amazon will never contact you in this way.
Scam emails can be forwarded to report@phishing.gov.uk and if you have are concerned about any contact you receive as to whether its genuine or not find your own contact details for them and ask.
Stay Safe