Unfortunately, we will always be plagued with swindlers, fraudsters and scammers who are only too keen to relieve us of our well-earned cash. They also have absolutely no conscience and are more than happy to target the elderly.
Council Rebate
The latest scam that I am aware of, is a telephone call, claiming to be from your local authority council asking for your bank details so that they can pay you the fuel rebate. If you pay your council tax by standing order, direct debit or bank transfer, then the council already have your bank details and will automatically pay your rebate into your account, by mid-May. If you do on-line banking, check that this payment is made.
Parcel Delivery
You will receive an email stating that there is a parcel due for delivery which has an insufficient amount of postage and cannot be delivered until the additional postage is paid. This is usually a very small amount, there is a link for you to click on which leads to a very realistic web site asking for your bank details. This will never happen from any delivery company.
TV Licence
Again, an offer of a refund as you have paid too much on your licence, not surprisingly they are asking for your bank details, again the BBC will never do this.
Cold Telephone Calls
If anybody cold calls you and asks for your bank details never under any circumstances give any information out. Tell them what you think of them, hang up and, if you can, block the number. Often a call on a mobile will show as being scam, just don’t answer and block the call.
Never give your bank details to anyone you don’t know or do not trust and never give your bank card PIN number to anyone you don’t trust implicitly. Likewise your PIN number should never be written down. When drawing cash out of an ATM then always cover your hand as you enter your PIN number.