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Scammers Targeting Victims On National Fish and Chip Day

Action Fraud have issued a warning for people to lookout for Phishing messages on National Fish and Chip Day.

Between April 2018 and March 2019, Action Fraud received over a quarter of a million reports of Phishing. Over two thirds of these reports were about emails claiming to be from a well-known brand. There were almost 70,000 that related to phishing phone calls, otherwise known as vishing, and close to 18,000 relating to phishing text messages, known as smishing.

Commander Karen Baxter, National Police Coordinator for Economic Crime at the City of London Police, said:“Phishing messages are … Read more

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Another Warning Over Booking Pilgrimage

Action Fraud is warning people to be careful when booking their pilgrimages.

Action Fraud, the reporting service, is warning anyone looking to book an upcoming pilgrimage to the Middle East, to exercise extreme caution as fraudsters are specifically targeting Hajj trips.

Up to 25,000 British Muslims will be booking trips to Mecca over the coming months to perform Hajj in the autumn.

The total reported loss to victims was £185,967 betw,,een July and December 2018. The public are urged to check that their travel company is a member of a recognised association such as ABTA

Last year, in the period … Read more

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Tenant Convicted over £40,000 Scam

In a landmark prosecution, a community homes tenant has been convicted for defrauding the council out of £40,000.

Adrian Pengilley, from Plymouth, originally applied to purchase his council home, under the right to buy scheme, but instead he illegally Sublette the property. He moved out of the property and rent it out, which is against the rules under the right to buy scheme. He had been a tenant of Plymouth Community Homes for 14 years and although the sale never went through, he could of benefitted just under £40,000 from the fraud.

Plymouth Community Homes said his actions led to … Read more

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HMRC puts an end to fraudsters spoof calling victims

HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) have put new defensive controls in place to put an end to fraudsters spoofing the tax authority’s most recognisable helpline numbers.

Fraudsters have increasingly mimicked legitimate HMRC helpline numbers (often beginning with 0300) to dupe taxpayers and steal money. Last year alone, HMRC received over 100,000 phone scam reports.

How the scam works

HMRC have long warned about fake tax related scam calls. Fraudsters posing as HMRC use many different tactics to extract money from victims. However, HMRC say that there has been a sharp rise in the amount of scam calls being made to … Read more

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Telemarketing Timeshare Scammer Pleads Guilty!

A man from Florida has pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud, and could  face up to 20 years behind bars.

The telemarketing scam, largely targeted Spanish speaking victims throughout the U.S who wanted to sell their timeshare properties. Jamie Frieri 49, has plead guilty to commit wire fraud and could face a maximum penalty of 20 years in federal prison.

According to court documents, Frieri, operated the scam from 2014 to 2018. He conspired with another individual to take money from mainly Spanish-speaking victims throughout the United States. His victims were desperate to sell their timeshare properties … Read more

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Scam Victim Wants to Warn Others

Wendy Williams, was just one of over a thousand people targeted by the ‘Wolves of Wind Street’, a group of fraudsters who targeted elderly victims with a free boiler scam. Renewable Energy Centre Ltd, offered victims a free boiler under what they said was a government scheme, all people had to do was pay a one-off upfront fee of either £299 or £399.

The company managed to con 1,200 people into paying this fee, but only three households ever received their new boilers. The three elderly victims who did receive their new boiler, were actually unknowingly signed up for … Read more

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Virgin Media issues warning to customers over scam phone calls

An elderly man is warning people to be vigilant after he was targeted by scammers.

A man is warning customers to be vigilant after receiving numerous scam phone calls claiming to be from his telephone provider. John Brown, from Darlington, had been receiving missed calls and automated messages from ‘British Telecom’ stating his internet and broadband with Virgin Media would be cancelled.

The messages, which he received almost daily in the space of four weeks, told him he could remedy this by calling a certain number and pressing ‘one’ to speak to someone claiming to be tech support. Already suspicious, … Read more

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Businessman Jailed For Conning Footballer  

A businessman from Doncaster has been jailed for eight and a half years for conning footballer Gary Cahill.

The Sun reported that Chelsea and England star Cahill, was conned out of £1 million by Stewart Groves who had offered the defender his services, but instead deposited the cash into his own bank accounts.

Stewart Groves has been disqualified for ten years after misappropriating £800,000 of one of his clients investments. At a crown court hearing, Groves was found guilty of fraud by misrepresentation and sentenced to 8 and a half years. Earlier this year, Lincoln County Court issued Groves … Read more

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Stunned Parents told they can’t sit next to their 3 young children on flight

A family who went on a dream holiday to the US were told they couldn’t sit with their three young children, aged just 2, 4 and 6.

The family were stranded abroad after United Airlines refused to let the family sit together. Lois Herbert and her family took a trip of a lifetime to the US to celebrate her 30th birthday, but the trip came to a disastrous end when they arrived at Denver airport and were told something was wrong with their booking.

The family spared no expense on their £30,000 holiday, even upgrading the seven plane tickets… Read more

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HMRC told to delete unlawful voice data

The Information Commissioner’s Office say that the voice data collected unlawfully by HMRC should be deleted.

The information Commissioner’s Office started investigating HMRC back in June 2018, after learning the government body had been illegally storing the biometric voice ID’s of more than 5 million people.

Watchdog Group ‘Big Brother Watch’ (BBW) lodged an official complaint with the ICO. The advocacy organisation said that the collection of Voice ID’s was not being done with explicit consumer consent, and information on how individuals can easily and securely have their voiceprint deleted is not publicly accessible. BBW says this is a direct … Read more

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