Scam Warning: Islanders Urged To Remain Vigilant Over Christmas

Thursday, 10 December 2020 12:23

By Iona Stewart-Richardson @IslandIona

Islanders are being warned to remain vigilant over Christmas when dealing with unsolicited contact.

Trading Standards is warning that Islanders must act with caution when receiving phone calls, emails or texts that appear to be genuine.

A number of scams have been reported in the last week, which includes:

Reports of scammers pretending to be the Telephone Preference Service and trying to charge you for this service. Ironically the TPS is designed to reduce unwanted calls and is totally free. Don’t be tricked into paying for any type of call blocking service over the phone.
Reports of callers purporting to be from the IOW Council threatening the police if payment isn’t made. This is a SCAM – the IOW Council would never operate in this way.
The HMRC scam call appears to be back again – telling worried residents that they owe money and there is a warrant out for their arrest, they can pay by purchasing Xbox vouchers. This is a SCAM - no legitimate organisation would behave in this way
Emails purporting to be from the DVLA and the TV Licensing to say that your payment hasn’t gone through and to click on a link to make a payment before your licence is cancelled.

Never click on links in emails, check the email address of the sender to ensure that it is a valid email address.

For any further information around staying safe from scams go to www.iwasp.org.uk

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