The local police have sent us this message:
“LBTH Neighbourhood Watch have received reports of a potential scam whereby a woman has been knocking door-to-door in and around the Bow area claiming to be collecting donations for here nephew who has leukemia. When asked to provide identification/supporting evidence the woman’s attitude turns to one of frustration and annoyance.
While charities do carry out door to collections at time or leave an envelope for collection they also carry required identification.”
They sent us The Little Book of Big Scams which is very useful.
Today’s Times front page has an article headed “Savers lose millions to retirement fraudsters” which you can read here. Fraudsters are ringing people up pretending to be from well known big companies. They are also putting up cloned websites. The clue is to look closely at the web address in the browser bar and to right click on any email addresses to see where they are really from. The Financial Conduct Authority has put up a list of registered companies. Contact companies using the web links and phone numbers here. Don’t rely on phone numbers or web addresses that are given to you – most likely by overseas fraudsters. At the very least search on Google to find them yourself. Half a million pounds a day is being stolen from people with an average age of 61.
If in doubt, call the FCA on 0800 111 6768.