A local door to door scam
Reported to me this week by U3A members who were caught out by a caller at the door. They live on Vaughan estate and nearby is the new Sherwood Gate development. The smartly dressed, well spoken man at the door claimed to be from the development and they had been asked to clear some furniture from the show house. He was in a van with the wording ‘Better Homes’ on the side.
In short they bought something, paying too much for a fake product. They have no connection to Bellway Homes at Sherwood Gate so please be aware as they may be coming your way.
Premium Rate Phone Scam
This scam tries to snare people searching online for phone numbers of government advice services, by creating ads which contain premium-rate telephone numbers. It works by displaying an advert for the phone number of the relevant government advice line. All well and good, you might say.
But the sting is that you’ll be charged a premium for using this advertised telephone number – in some cases, as much as £20 or £30 a call.
You will be put through to the right advice line, but will be paying a very high and unnecessary connection fee. In comparison, calling the advice line directly by using the correct phone number is usually free or relatively low cost.
Beware 090 Numbers
Searches for car tax discs, renewing your driving licence, passport and completing your tax return are some of the areas currently prone to these premium-rate number scams. To avoid being ripped off in this way, you should firstly never use numbers beginning with 084, 087, 090, 091 or 098 when calling government advice lines.
No official government service would ever use an 084, 087, 090, 091 or 098 number to deliver a legitimate government service. Use the government website to search directly for legitimate government telephone advice line numbers. This way you’ll always be able to find the right number to call directly for the service you want.
Care: they do not always come first on a Google search.
David Rose
