Stay Safe Online – Nuisance Phone Calls, Bogus emails and Online Scams

Stay Safe Online – Nuisance Phone Calls, HMRC Bogus emails and Chase Capital Online Scam

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John, Logan and Dane Rainford

Nuisance phone calls
Did you know that you can register your mobile number – as well as your landline – with the Telephone Preference Service (TPS) www.TPSonline.org.uk

It is illegal for telemarketers to call a number registered with the TPS and if you are still receiving unwanted calls 28 days after registering your number, you can register a complaint on the same website.

If you have elderly relatives who are constantly getting calls from strangers – you can register their phone number with the TPS.  Then hopefully, they won’t get a call like this:

Chase Capital Online scam
Watch out for this scam – Chase Capital rang me saying I had opened a trading account with them for investment and asked me some personal questions.  When I queried this, the caller said she had sent me an email and asked me to click on the link.  Instead of clicking on the link I typed it into a Google search engine which told me this was a scam.  She then proceeded to insist that I click on the link in the email to take me to the correct place but, by this time, I already knew this was a scam and put the phone down.

HMRC Bogus emails
If you are self-employed, it’s that time of year when self-assessment tax returns are due – but watch out for bogus emails, purported to be from HMRC, offering tax rebates, threatening penalties for tax evasion, or asking for personal or payment information.

HMRC will never ring up threatening you with arrest – only criminals do that!

If you are not sure whether the email, phone call or text message is genuine you can check the ‘HMRC scams’ advice on www.gov.uk

If you think you’ve given any personal information in reply to a suspicious email or text contact the HMRC security team on including brief details of the type of information you have disclosed – but not the information itself.

Sign up here for Which? Scam alerts direct to your inbox:

https://campaigns.which.co.uk/scam-alert-service/

Find details of recent scams here: www.actionfraud.police.uk

Published in the January edition of the Whitchurch Gossip