TSI warns of dangerous energy saving scam targeting elderly

 Trading Standards Institute is urging consumers to be aware of rogue telephone cold callers offering energy saving devices after trading standards up and down the country reported hundreds of complaints.

Trading standards are currently dealing with more than 200 complaints about people claiming to be their energy supplier or working in partnership with them, offering a plug in device which they say can save them 40 per cent off their energy bills.

Trading standards have had a number of the items tested which not only failed to satisfy electrical safety standards but do not deliver any tangible energy savings.

Ron Gainsford from the Trading Standards Institute said: “Consumers are warned not to use the product as they pose a risk of fire and electrocution and a safety recall has been issued for the items traced so far.

“Unscrupulous criminals are using the rising energy prices as an opportunity to lure in cash strapped consumers – elderly people seem to have been deliberately targeted.

“The number of complaints we are currently dealing with is bound to be only the tip of the iceberg.”

Westminster trading standards have been investigating the scam as the caller gives a London W1 Oxford Street address for the company.

Sue Jones from Westminster trading standards said: “The address they give is that of a virtual office provider, the companies involved in these scams are not actually situated there -  we believe the call centre they use is based abroad and the appliances appear to be distributed by a number of individuals in the UK.

“We know that these fraudsters have been duping consumers across the country into paying £99 for the energy saving device and have been told the caller always appears to be very credible by already knowing the consumers’ details, their energy supplier and sometimes some or all of the digits of their credit/  debit  card.

“Often consumers do not realise that they have been defrauded until they receive the dodgy looking device with instructions in broken English and the accompanying invoice which names an unknown supplier and often gives an American address.”

So far four different suppliers have been named, 1 Stop Marketing Solutions, ITC Development Corp, Power Saver and Athico Ltd. but the fraudsters could be operating under other names too.  Some of these names could be very similar to genuine companies – for example Power Saver Ltd, based in Tonbridge, Kent is not involved in this fraud.

The director of Athico Ltd appears to have been a victim of the scam himself. He fully cooperated with trading standards and the company has now ceased trading.

Advice to consumers

 If consumers have responded to one of these cold calls they should report the matter to Action Fraud on www.actionfraud.org.uk 0300 123 2040 or Consumer Direct on 08454040506 . They should also contact their bank to stop their debit/ credit card. If a device has been received they should not use it and dispose of it carefully. 

Consumers should be cautious about giving out any personal or financial information. They should independently verify a caller’s identity before agreeing to purchase any goods or services.

 

Can you circulate this around especially as Xmas is fast approaching – it has been confirmed by Royal Mail.

The Trading Standards Office are making   people aware of the following scam:

• A card is posted through your door from a company called PDS (Parcel  Delivery Service) suggesting that they were unable to deliver a parcel and
• that you need to contact them on 0906 6xxx911 (a Premium rate number). (I have deleted some of the digits to stop anyone calling them accidentally)

• DO NOT call this number, as this is a mail scam originating from Belize. (formerly British Honduras in Central America)

• If you call the number and you start to hear a recorded message you will  already have been billed £315 for the phone call.

If you do receive a card with these details, then please contact Royal Mail  Fraud on 020 7239 6655.

For more information, see the Crime Stoppers website:

http://www.crimestoppers-uk.org/crime-prevention/helping-prevent-crime/scams/postal-delivery-scam

Very Important!

Advice to residents about telephone scam

Kingston Council is advising residents about a telephone scam that is currently being attempted in the Royal Borough of Kingston.

The Council was contacted by approximately twenty residents recently who have been contacted by telephone by someone claiming to be ringing from ‘The Council Tax department’.

The caller is telling residents that they are entitled to a rebate on their Council Tax or that their Council tax band has been changed to a lower rate.

The caller says that all the resident has to do is provide details of the residents’ bank account and the caller will transfer the ‘rebate’ to their account. Some residents have also been asked to send a sum of money to a given account to cover the cost of ‘administration’ or to make a donation to ‘charity’.

In all instances the advice from Kingston Council is DO NOT provide details of your bank account or date of birth over the telephone.

Residents who receive such an approach are advised to ask for the name and telephone number of the caller and finish the call. Any genuine caller from Kingston Council will be happy to provide their name and a number where residents can return the call to verify the details.

Commenting, Aiden Walsh, Assistant Manager of the Counter Fraud and Corruption Unit at Kingston Council, said:

“The chances are that anyone receiving a call along these lines are that it is a scam.

 

Kingston Council has received a steady flow of calls today which indicates that the scammers are currently targeting residents in this area. The police are aware of the increase in activity today.

 

Residents who are in any doubt are advised to ask for the name and contact details of the caller and finish the call. If in doubt, contact your local Council Tax office and they can check whether there are any changes to your entitlement.”

To contact Kingston Council Tax visit – www.kingston.gov.uk/council_tax

Note that all the Council tax numbers are 8547 xxxx ones.

It asked for sort codes, credit card numbers, the 3-digit security code on the backs of cards and my online ID and PIN.

I phoned Lloyds TSB security this morning and they assured me this is another scam, and a new one, and asked me to forward the email to them.

If you or any of your friends or relatives receive such an email, on no account reply to it and never divulge the kind of information they were asking for in response to such a request, however convincing the email looks.

Dear NHW member

We were recently contacted by a resident who had received a suspicious e-mail claiming to be from HM Revenue & Customs (customers@hmrc.gov.uk)
“Dear Applicant:

Following an upgrade of our computer systems and review of our records we have investigated your payments and latest tax returns over the last seven years our calculations show you have made over payments of ?256.99.
Due to the high volume of refunds due you must complete the on line application, the telephone help line is unable to assist with this application.
In order to process your refund you willl need to complete the attached application form.
Your refund may take up to 3 weeks to process please make sure you complete the form correctly.
As we are upgrading our records we require the completed form showing your full current details by 20 August 2010.

Please submit the form attached to confirm the refund.

S.M. Roberts
Senior Manager
HM Revenue & Customs”

Upon taking a look at the HM Revenue & customs website, we found the following paragraph under the heading “scams”.

”We are aware of a scam that involves an email with a fake HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) heading. The email asks customers to provide banking details so that a repayment can be issued. HMRC will never contact by email for this type of information, but you may be confused if you have recently submitted a repayment claim. This type of email scam is known as a ‘phishing’ exercise and it should always be ignored and deleted ”.

These complete newcomers to the Ward have put out a letter to postal voters claiming to have done everything.

Let’s deal with the issues they raise;

1. Schools, It was Nick Kilby who alerted a complacent Lib Dem administration in Kingston to the growing pressure on primary places, which they had ignored – and Dennis Doe who demanded a new secondary school in North Kingston, which they said wasn’t necessary.
2. Recycling: we campaigned for weekly recycling in 2006. Our Focus team wouldn’t know that because they weren’t around at the time.  I spoke about it at length in that year’s Budget debate and was told it wasn’t affordable. By whom? You guessed it!
3. Tesco at Tolworth: they claim to have ‘fought it off’ They weren’t even at the Planning meetings.
4. Tolworth Broadway Post Office: was saved because the present occupiers came forward to take on the business, thus solving the only reason it might have closed. Well done the business people that took it on.
5. Council Housing: Everyone in School Lane knows that Nick and I have campaigned ceaselessly against the Government’s Negative Housing Subsidy. So do the Leaders of the Residents’ Associations on all estates. That’s why they have elected me Chair of the Housing Consultative Committee for 12 years in succession. Every Lib Dem councillor knows this too and it is just plain dishonest for any Liberal Democrat to put their name to such a patent falsehood as the suggestion ‘(we) have failed to stand up against a Labour Government that takes £7m from local tenant rents.’  when Nick Kilby, Ian George and I have been at the cutting edge of attempts to improve resident participation and foster the only thing that will get this system altered for Kingston residents, usually in the face of an inactive Lib Dem Executive Member, who sits in meeting after meeting of the Housing Consultative Committee failing to communicate with tenants and leaseholders. Only in the last month has the Executive finally woken up to the fact that it has been habitually ignoring residents at its own peril.
6. Only profound ignorance can possibly excuse such a blatant untruth – Until I read with a magnifying glass the name of their agent, I was inclined to ascribe it to ignorance rather than a deliberate attempt to deceive. But their Agent, an ex-Lib Dem Leader and Lib Dem councillors, including those in St. Marks and Berrylands, cannot be so excused.
7. Less than a year ago the Surbiton Hill Focus Team did not exist, yet they repeat the tired old Lib Dem formula that ‘many residents say we’re the only ones they hear from all the year round.’

SAME OLD LIB DEMS – SAME OLD HUMBUG: PLEASE DON’T BE TAKEN IN BY IT

If you receive one of these missives – please recycle it.

He rang to ask if this was true.

It isn’t! The Conservative Group has never even discussed such a policy, let alone come to the conclusion alleged by the canvasser. I suspect a Lib Dem disinformation campaign here. It won’t be the first time they’ve done it.

What is true is the the Labour Government has announced a policy to raise the age of eligibility from 60 to 65, phased over 10 years.

What is also true is that Lib Dem Leader Nick Clegg, presumably supported by Ed Davey and the Lib Dem Councillors in Kingston, wanted to raise the age of eligibilty to 65 immediately. So people who are 60 this year wouldn’t get one for another 5 years if the Lib Dems had their way!

I wonder if their canvassers are pointing this out…………

Postal Scam
Can you circulate this around especially as Christmas is fast approaching – it has been confirmed by Royal Mail.

The Trading Standards Office are making people aware of the following scam:

A card is posted through your door from a company called PDS (Parcel Delivery Service) suggesting that they were
unable to deliver a parcel and that you need to contact them on  09066611911 (a Premium rate number).

DO NOT call this number, as this is a mail scam originating from Belize.

If you call the number and you start to hear a recorded message you will already have been billed £15 for the phone call.

If you do receive a card with these details, then please contact Royal Mail Fraud on 020 7239 6655.