Doorstep Crime
An incident reported to us recently involved a householder with a leaking roof placing an advert on an online website for workmen to repair the leak. One group of workmen responded, viewed the leak and offered a quote which the householder accepted. The work was later done, the workmen were paid a three-figure sum and left. Unfortunately, the leak remained and it was discovered that the ‘work’ done had been done shoddily, requiring even more repairs. It appears that the workmen were ‘rogue traders’; workmen with no real ability or qualifications, making botched efforts on people’s property for often over-inflated prices.
To help avoid becoming a victim of this type of ‘workmen’, we suggest that you go for firms recommended highly by friends or family or listed in the Yellow Pages (look for workmen who are members of trade bodies) or look on the Which? website for their Trusted Traders (https://trustedtraders.which.co.uk/). Other steps to take include retaining any e-mails or paperwork provided by the workmen, take note of the details of their vehicles, such as registration number, make model, colour and business details shown on the vehicle (perhaps by taking a photo on a mobile phone?) and never pay the bill in cash. Instead, try to pay by cheque (which can be cancelled even several days after being handed over) or, if by direct bank payment, remember to print off the confirmation page that the transaction has been successful and retain it along with any other relevant paperwork. Also, never accede to workmen who just happen to notice a problem as they were ‘just driving by’. Thank them politely and firmly tell them that you will get your own builder to attend to the problem.
Scams
One recent incident involved a consumer who was browsing online, looking for an investment opportunity. A pop-up field appeared on her screen offering such an opportunity so the consumer added her contact details to the pop-up and sent it off. A few days later she was contacted by a male purporting to be a Financial Advisor who provided the consumer with very credible information about the investment, genuine looking documentation. He also came across as genuine, so the consumer invested a substantial sum with this male.
A few days later the consumer tried to check on her investments online but could not, nor could she contact the male. It appears now that the male was a scammer who pretended to work for a genuine company (a ‘clone’ firm), working a very sophisticated scam.
Our advice in these circumstances is: never put your details into an onscreen pop-up, especially when it involves money; only use companies regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority, (the UK regulator, https://www.fca.org.uk/) as this provides certain valuable protections; before parting with money, check the FCA Warnings List (https://www.fca.org.uk/news/search- results?category=warnings&start=1), consider only using a company with a local office so you can see they have a bricks-and-mortar presence; check the following websites for scam advice before you part with money;
Friends Against Scams https://www.friendsagainstscams.org.uk/
Action Fraud https://www.actionfraud.police.uk/individual-protection
Take Five https://takefive-stopfraud.org.uk/advice/general-advice/
FCA Scam Smart https://www.fca.org.uk/scamsmart
It has also come to our attention that there are companies selling PPE over the internet and that some of these are scammers who will take your money and provide no PPE. Caution should always be exercised when buying over the internet from a website for the first time. For this type of purchase, some warning signs to look out for are:
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The PPE being unusually cheap compared to other sites
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Payment being requested up-front, directly into a bank account
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Websites being copyrighted from only the last couple of years
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The business address being recently up for sale (established after
checking property selling websites)
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Photos on the webpage appearing to be stock photos (generic photo’s widely available on the internet) or taken from other sites. These can be ‘reverse searched’ to see where they have been used before. A good starting point is Google Images (https://images.google.com/?gws_rd=ssl) where a downloaded copy of the suspect image is uploaded to Google, which will search for it on the internet and provide you with results.
If in doubt, do not proceed with the purchase but rather use a trusted site.
Contact
For urgent Trading Standards matters, contact Aberdeenshire Council’s Trading Standards at 01467 537222. For non-urgent enquiries, please contact Consumer Advice Scotland at https://www.consumeradvice.scot/ or on 0808 164 600.
Contact Police Scotland on 999 if you need urgent assistance or 101 for non- urgent matters.
For more information about scams please visit Friends Against Scams at
https://www.friendsagainstscams.org.uk/
Please direct any media queries to news@aberdeenshire.gov.uk or 01467 538222 during office hours.