Hello Everyone,
I thought I’d share some good news with you today. Our Trading Standards team have had a considerable success with a court case brought recently against Life Comfort Products. The directors and members of the sales team have received significant jail sentences. All entered guilty pleas to a charge of contravening professional diligence. The company sold pressure beds and chairs to elderly and vulnerable residents using high pressure sales tactics. A number of demonstrations had been given to customers with Alzheimer’s disease or dementia and these vulnerabilities would have been plainly visible to anyone according to the victim’s families. When demonstrators arrived at customers’ homes, they would often spend a number of hours showing the products and the court heard how demonstrators from the firm even signed cheques for customers. It is a nice example of what Trading Standards can do if enough people report issues. The news report can be found here.
Unfortunately other scammers are still active out there. As football fans everywhere will know, the 2018 FIFA World Cup is taking place from 14 June – 15 July. The worldwide demand for match tickets, accommodation and flight tickets throughout the competition is expected to be high. Action Fraud is warning those planning to travel to be cautious when buying tickets or accommodation because the event is likely to be targeted by fraudsters looking to take advantage of unsuspecting fans. Between 2013 and 2015, over 600 reports were made to Action Fraud in relation to the 2014 World Cup.
Fraudsters will likely be posing as Official World Cup ticket vendors or private individuals attempting to sell on a match ticket via an online marketplace. Also be wary of fraudulent websites or operators offering non-existent flights or other transport to host cities and any accommodation booking service, hotel or operator, offering seemingly convenient accommodation. For more information please visit the Action Fraud website here.
Also on the Action Fraud website are the top 8 frauds to watch out for in 2018 according to Nat West. Working with The Future Laboratory to analyse data from the last 18 months, they are predicting eight frauds expected to emerge in 2018. These include the World Cup scams, romance fraud and wedding scams and is worth a quick look here.
Fraudulent websites alleging to offer cryptocurrency investments are dishonestly using the image of Martin Lewis, the founder and editor for moneysavingexpert.com, as an endorsement for their companies. Martin Lewis has published a warning to the public saying “I don’t do adverts. If you ever see one with my face or name on it, it is without my permission, and usually a scam”. The full article can be found here.
We are still hearing of local victims of the courier fraud I have mentioned previously, so just a reminder; the scam involves fraudsters phoning individuals pretending to be a police officer or bank official and asking them to withdraw money from their bank accounts as part of an undercover investigation. Your bank and the police will never ask you to withdraw cash, reveal your PIN number or passwords or purchase high value goods that will then be collected from your home.
I hope this information proves useful. As always, if you would like to be removed from this emailing list please just let me know. Thanks for all your support.
Kind Regards
Elaine Mountfort
Community Protection Officer
People and Communities Directorate
Telephone: 01954 286006 or 07810153604Email: [email protected]
