Further to the previous post:-
There have been a few anecdotal posts on Facebook in the last few weeks from a number of Cambridgeshire village sites reporting on people rummaging through residents’ bins. Whilst this could be totally innocent, please remind people to shred any documents containing personal details.
The Community Protection Team are delighted to be involved with Cambridgeshire’s Crime Prevention Day which will take place on Wednesday 21 February and aims to encourage people to take some easy steps towards making their property and vehicles more secure. For 24 hours police will host activities across the county including marking property, educating people on how to protect their belongings and reduce opportunist crime, and selling security products at cost price.
The awareness day, which is the force’s biggest ever crime prevention event, will involve around 8 crime prevention officers, 40 officers, 12 Specials, 80 PCSOS and our police cadets, with those involved split into teams focused on particular crime types.
For your information I have added details about the teams and events from Cambridgeshire Constabulary website to the end of this email.
Action Fraud is warning the public about fraudsters that are using the name of the British Council to trick businesses and individuals into handing over money.
They have had several reports about fraudsters who are approaching businesses in person and individuals over the phone and tricking them into paying a fine or license.
The British Council is the UK’s international organisation for cultural relations and educational opportunities, it does not collect council tax fines or issues licenses.
Also from Action Fraud: ‘We’ve got several reports about HMRC phishing emails being sent from an Italian domain that passes through Finland!
Don’t click, this isn’t something @HMRCgovuk would send!’
The good news is HMRC shut down 16k malicious websites last year!
You may be aware that those defrauded using Western Union wire transfers between 2004 and January 2017 have been eligible to claim money back, but the original deadline has passed. According to Halton Trading Standards there is an extension to 31 May 2018. If you are eligible to claim and haven’t there may still be time. Claiming is free so be very wary of anyone who makes contact offering to help with your claim as the scammers have victims’ contact details. Please only go to government sites (sites that end .gov.uk) or the Western Union remission site itself (with no spaces in the URL) to get the most up to date reliable information and never pay to make a claim.
Another one to watch out for; fraudsters are sending out fake Sainsbury’s gift vouchers via email, with 15 reports received by Action Fraud from members of the public in one day. When you consider that only 3 – 5% of scams are reported, this suggests this scam is quite widespread. The email claims that the intended victim was overcharged on a recent visit to the supermarket and offers the gift card as compensation. However, when users click the link to get to the promised gift vouchers, they are led to a website that
could potentially defraud them.
Stay safe everyone (and as always please let me know if you would like to stop receiving these emails). Spring will soon be here.
Kind Regards
Elaine Mountfort
Community Protection Officer
People and Communities Directorate
Telephone: 01954 286006 or 07810153604Email: [email protected]
