3 March 2018

Scammers in and around Bexley

Thanks to Dana Wiffen from Neighbourhood Watch for sending us the following 'Scammers Alert' :

There is a telephone Sky-Scam"you have a refund to come" don't give bank details it's a con this is typical and there are loads of scams going around at the moment. Please be aware.& see below some of them......Regards Dana

CON MAN
We have received a report of an Asian man knocking on front doors asking to borrow some money to get petrol as his car has run out and saying that his wife has gone off with his wallet shopping. This con man is very prolific and operates in Bexley and Dartford areas. If he visits your house phone the police straight away. He has perfected this scam over a number of years now.

BE AWARE ROGUE TRADERS OPERATING
The rogue traders are posting leaflets to homes advertising services to clear, repair, and replace guttering and also offering to carry out roofing and damp proofing works. The leaflets claim that they are working in the road over the next few days, this is a common tactic used by persistent door step criminals to persuade people to have work carried out quickly as consumers think they must get the work done before the traders move on. Residents have reported work carried out by these traders is of poor quality, shoddy and they are charged massively inflated prices, with some victims being charged thousands of pounds. If you received a leaflet advertising work like this please report it to Bexley Trading Standards at;- Julie.Powell@bexley.gov.uk - or directly to us.

SUSPICIOUS HOUSE CALLS & CRIME PREVENTION
We have heard reports of suspicious individuals knocking on doors at inappropriate times of the evening with poor excuses as to why they are knocking. A recent example, a male knocked at a house in Wren Road with a cool bag saying he had a Chinese takeaway. The resident had not ordered a Chinese and the male left. The resident was suspicious so followed the vehicle. He challenged them and they left the area at speed.

It seems to be a trend now that potential properties have someone knock on the door to see if anyone is home. If someone answers they come up with a poor excuse as to why they've knocked.

Please ensure your properties look occupied at night. If you can afford it install a burglar alarm and CCTV. CCTV is invaluable and not only a deterrent but also helps identify criminals. Buy the best system you can afford. Poor quality CCTV is quite frustrating when you can see what happened but cannot identify people or vehicles. There are lots of things that you can do to protect your property. Lights on timers, video doorbells, gravel drives, low border hedges, sensor lights, plastic spikes on fences (not barbed wire or broken glass), Fake TV (a battery operated device that emulates a TV in on a room, activates at night randomly). Above all, keep doors and windows locked even during the day.

If you have uPVC doors make sure you not only lift the handle to engage the multi-point locking but turn the key and remove the key from the lock leaving it somewhere where everyone in the house knows where it is but not within sight or reach of doors or windows. Keep car keys away from doors and windows too.

HMRC SCAM CALLS
We've been made aware of a telephone scam. A resident reported receiving a recorded message claiming to be from HMRC stating that there was a serious note against their file and to call on the number given. The resident made their own checks with HMRC and were told that this was not genuine.