Bogus NHS Digital Covid Passport Emails
Warwickshire residents are warned to beware of bogus COVID NHS emails.
The emails – which carry the NHS logo – are being sent out asking for payment in return for a ‘Coronavirus Digital Passport’ to prove that someone has been vaccinated for Covid-19.
A button takes users through to a fake NHS website, which asks for payment details.
Ghost Broker Warning
Fraudsters, known as ‘ghost brokers’ are selling fake and invalid car insurance policies. Victims are lured in by offers of very cheap insurance premiums, often via social media. Victims are then sold bogus insurance policies:
- Fake policies using counterfeit documents
- Genuine policies set up using false details that lower the premium price
- Genuine policies that are then cancelled
Buying car insurance from a ghost broker could leave you uninsured!
‘Spoofed’ Meal Delivery Kits
Fraudsters are ‘spoofing’ popular meal deliver kit companies, Warwickshire Trading Standards are warning. Meal deliver subscribers awaiting their deliveries are receiving scam texts and emails purporting to be from the companies they buy from. These contain links to scam websites designed to steal personal and financial information and infect the consumer’s computer with malware. The bogus communications may suggest that the company is running a prize draw to win free meal kits or may ask the recipient to rate their delivery by following a link.
Avoid clicking on links in emails and texts, even if they seem genuine. Always type the genuine web address in to your browser or use your app to access your account.
Bogus Doorstep Sellers
Warwickshire Trading Standards has received new reports of people selling household items such as cleaning products door to door and falsely claiming they are on a young offender programme in order to encourage a sale. The products may be overpriced and of poor quality. You can’t tell a good trader from a bad one on the doorstep. Don’t buy goods or services from unexpected doorstep sellers.
Bogus Bank Fraud Squad
Warwickshire residents have reported losing thousands of pounds to criminals masquerading as ‘fraud’ investigators. The scam involves the victim receiving a phone call from someone claiming to be from their bank to say that criminals have attempted to withdraw money from their account, usually in another country. The victim is then given a bogus phone number to call their bank’s ‘anti-fraud squad’. They tell the victim they have people watching the criminals and the Police are ready to catch them in the act. They ask the victim to transfer several thousand pound from their own account in to another one so that the fraudsters can be caught. The victim is promised that the money will be returned in hours. But once the money has gone it may not be recoverable.
Your bank will never contact you to ask you to move money in to another ‘safe’ account.
Mattress Sellers Warning
Warwickshire residents have again reported being approached on the doorstep by people selling mattresses. The sellers sometimes claim that the mattresses were meant for new build homes but are now surplus to requirement and can be sold cheap.
Mattresses sold in the UK be must manufactured to comply with fire safety laws and be correctly labelled. But many cheap imports do not meet these requirements and may be a fire risk. Some of the mattresses sold door to door are cheap imports with bogus safety labelling stuck on to the product.
Do not buy goods or services from unexpected doorstep sellers.
Bogus Trading Standards Letter
A phoney letter has been sent to Warwickshire residents containing Chartered Trading Standards Institute branding. The bogus letter informs the recipient that insurance scammers have been caught and that the recipient should fill in a “creditors debt form” as part of a scam compensation scheme. Filling out the form puts the finances of the respondent at risk.
Do not respond to this letter, that has been sent by post and by email.
For more information visit: https://www.tradingstandards.uk/news-policy/news-room/2021/postal-scam-using-fraudulent-ctsi-branding-targets-public
Courier Fraud
Warwickshire residents have reported being targeted by courier fraudsters. One elderly resident reported receiving a phone call from the ‘Police fraud service’. The caller knew the resident’s bank account number and told her the account had been compromised. She was then asked to wrap her bank cards in paper and plastic and that someone would collect them. The resident immediately but the phone down and contacted her bank her who informed her it was a scam.