Scam Awareness Month – telephone fraud

SCAMS

Citizens Advice Scotland, Citizens Advice and Trading Standards Services are leading activities throughout the month of May in the fight-back against scammers – giving consumers the information, skills and confidence to spot and stop scams. This week, telephone fraud is under the spotlight with some examples to be on the look-out for below.

Telephone scams can take many different forms, but most have several things in common. Staying alert to these will help protect you from getting hooked in.

If the answer is YES to any of these questions, it could be a scam.

Is it:

• an uninvited message or phone call from a name or number you don’t recognise?

• tempting you with something for nothing – prizes or an easy way of making money?

One specific scam to watch out for is the ‘missed call’ scam.

Victims receive a missed call from a number beginning 070 or 076.

These numbers are used as they appear to be calls from a mobile phone number. However, when the victim tries to call the number back, the call is immediately dropped or an engaged tone is played and the victim is charged 50p for making the call.

If you receive a missed call from a number beginning 070 or 076 that you do not recognise, do not call it back.

Instead, make a note of the number and complain to the premium rate regulator, PhonepayPlus (Tel: 0800 500 212)

• tempting you with something that could change your life for the better?

• asking you to send money up-front or buy something up-front before you get the prize or offer?

• persuasive and rushing you into a quick decision?

• asking you to make expensive phone calls (premium rate numbers start with 090) to get the prize or offer?

• asking for your bank details or other personal information?

• using a mobile or PO box for its contact address? These are easy to close and difficult to trace and may be a sign that the company doesn’t exist or isn’t legitimate.

You can get online consumer advice and information at:

www.adviceguide.org.uk/scotland.htm 

or phone the Citizens Advice Consumer service 08454 04 05 06 for advice.

Check the Action Fraud alerts to common scams/frauds

www.actionfraud.police.uk/news

New energy advice funding for Citizens Advice Bureau

CAB

The South West Aberdeenshire Citizens Advice Bureau has secured two years of funding for a part-time fuel and energy adviser. The post is being funded by Citizens Advice Scotland in partnership with Scottish and Southern Energy. The adviser will help clients switch energy supplier, identify ways to save energy and make homes more energy efficient, address individual fuel debt and help with consumer problems related to billing or arising from the installation of renewable energy equipment. Fuel and energy adviser John Andrea said “Fuel poverty is on the rise in rural Aberdeenshire. Annual energy bills now aerage £1,300 – about £50 more than last year – but despite these figures 62% of the population have yet to switch to a better energy deal.

“Additionally 45% feel they would not save much money by changing supplier. We can show how much people could save if they were to switch. We believe no one should miss out because they do not have easy access to the internet. We are here to help by reducing expenditure on energy and maximising income”.

Appointments with the energy adviser, for Aberdeenshire residents only, can be made at the Citizens Advice Bureau in Westhill and at the rural outreaches at Banchory, Alford and Aboyne by calling 01224 747714.

Scam Awareness Month – mail fraud

SCAMS

Citizens Advice Scotland, Citizens Advice and Trading Standards Services are leading activities throughout the month of May in the fight-back against scammers – giving consumers the information, skills and confidence to spot and stop scams. This week, mail fraud is highlighted with some examples of current scams to be on the look-out for below.

1. Miracle health and slimming cure scams – You’ll get a mailshot announcing an amazing health breakthrough or miracle treatment. These pills, lotions, creams and other products supposedly cure everything from baldness, cancer, impotency or promise easy weight loss. Around £20m a year is spent on these scam products, some of which might even cause harm.

How to avoid them? A miracle slimming cure? Fat chance. If any of this stuff really worked, we’d have read about it in the papers. Don’t be fooled by any of these offers – the testimonials included on the leaflet are often made up, as are the names of the doctors and medical establishments quoted. Some mail order health companies boast about being based outside the UK, but more often than not, that’s so they can avoid UK regulations, which should make you wary about what they’re putting in their pills – and the claims they make for them.

2. Clairvoyant mailings – They’re sent in their thousands, but letters from a so-called psychic or clairvoyant are usually personalised, offering predictions that will change your life – in return for a payment. They may be more sinister, threatening bad luck unless you buy their talisman or amulet. 170,000 of us fall for this every year – 70 per cent of them women – and the total loss of money annually is around £40m a year.

How to avoid it? Put these letters straight in the bin and forget all about them.

3. Fake foreign lotteries – You receive a letter, phone call, or email saying you’ve won a major payout in an overseas lottery, and are asked to send money to cover administration or taxes. The winnings are never received, and it’s a scam that costs 140,000 consumers £260 million every year.

How to avoid it? However official the letter may look (some even use the names of long-established legitimate lotteries) it’s all rubbish. How can you win a prize in a lottery you never bought a ticket for? Some scamsters offer to buy winning lines on your behalf, using some great system to pick the numbers; they may not even buy the tickets they’ve promised you, and they certainly have no way of increasing your chances of winning. They may pretend you’ve won a small amount and send you low-value cheques so that you’ll be persuaded to keep buying more lines. Bear in mind the people behind this scam may just be trying to get your details so they can sell them on. There’s a related scam where you’ll be called by someone claiming to be a law enforcement officer, who says he’s recovered money from you but again, you’ll need to pay a fee for the funds to be released. Again, it’s all nonsense.

You can get online consumer advice and information at:

www.adviceguide.org.uk/scotland.htm 

or phone the Citizens Advice Consumer service 08454 04 05 06 for advice.

Check the Action Fraud alerts to common scams/frauds

www.actionfraud.police.uk/news

Scam Awareness Month – online fraud

  SCAMS

Citizens Advice Scotland, Citizens Advice and Trading Standards Services are leading activities throughout the month of May in the fight-back against scammers – giving consumers the information, skills and confidence to spot and stop scams. This week, online fraud is highlighted with some examples of current scams to be on the look-out for below.

Online shopping and auction scams – internet shoppers get lured into
buying phantom cars, mobile phones, pets or anything else you can buy
online. Scammers use a range of tricks including bogus websites, spoof 
payment services and a nasty new variation called “second chance offers”, 
tempting losing bidders with bogus opportunities. Online
property market places are also infiltrated by scammers harvesting
legitimate property details and posing as landlords.

Dating scams – using online dating websites scammers groom victims into
long-distance relationships using emails, instant messaging, texting and
phone calls. Once they are confident of the victim’s trust, scammers will
tell them about a problem they are experiencing and ask for financial help.

You can get online consumer advice and information at:

www.adviceguide.org.uk/scotland.htm 

or phone the Citizens Advice Consumer service 08454 04 05 06 for advice.

Check the Action Fraud alerts to common scams/frauds

www.actionfraud.police.uk/news

 

Kirkton of Skene welcomes superfast broadband!

Homes and businesses in Kirkton of Skene are the first to benefit from a scheme to deliver superfast internet speeds.

A new cabinet was unveiled in the village yesterday by Deputy Provost of Aberdeenshire, Norman Smith.

The new infrastructure will mean that some residents will be able to access download speeds of up to 80mbps, allowing multiple users in a home or business to access the internet and download and share large files at the same time and more quickly than ever before.

In February, the first superfast broadband connections, delivered through the Highland and Islands project went live in Buckie, with the Kirkton of Skene launch the first for the “rest of Scotland” project.

Improving digital connectivity for homes and businesses in Aberdeenshire is a key priority for the council and we have invested more than any other local authority in the UK to make this happen. The UK Government is investing over £120m in broadband for Scotland.

Broad

86% of Ward 13 residents say NO to separation!

Scotland flag with uk

With just under 200 days until Scotland votes in the referendum for separation, my online survey tells me that 86% of Ward 13 residents who responded are voting NO to a separate Scotland.

As both sides of the campaign marked the countdown, the Scottish Secretary, Alistair Carmichael was quoted in the media today:

“independence would have far-reaching consequences” for Scotland, as he argued the nation was “stronger and more secure as part of a United Kingdom”.

With the referendum “fast approaching” he said it was time for everyone to “turn their attention to how they intend to vote”

Mr Carmichael said: “This is not a decision to be taken lightly – we cannot afford to gamble with our nation’s future – so that means making an informed choice and to do that we all need to get the facts.

“And nobody should think that this is not a decision that matters for them.

“Crucial decisions – like whether you keep the UK pound in your pocket and who will be a British citizen – rest on this vote.”

He added: “This ballot is not won and the outcome will not be decided until the last vote is cast. Everyone who has a vote should use it – and use it wisely.”