Durham Police are warning people to be on their guard against cold callers offering to recover payment protection insurance or government-owed compensation from time share schemes abroad.
In the past few weeks there have been two incidents in the Petelee area where the callers have asked for money in advance in order for them to pay the funds. This is known as an advance fee fraud. They ask the member of the public to go to a Pay Point location, generally a convenience store, and even tell them the one nearest to their address. The vouchers used are UKash, a legitimate way of buying credit for use online or to transfer to a top up cash card.
These companies are fake, but they appear to have done research on the member of the public about their finances try to make the call sound legitimate. They also use legitimate website names and company names so if anyone does some research they again look real.
An elderly couple from the Peterlee area have ended up losing hundreds of pounds after the company said the first amounts weren’t enough to release the funds.
On the other occasion a woman attended the caller’s address to collect the UKash vouchers, but the householder was wise to the scheme and sent the woman away empty handed.
DC Jonathan Stoker from Peterlee CID has contacted the National Fraud intelligence Bureau and these type of frauds are on the increase.
“If you are promised money over the phone and it sounds too good to be true, it will be. Don’t hesitate to hang up.”
For advice about fraud contact actionfraud.police.uk or ring them on 0300 123 2040. Alternatively your local citizen advice bureau can help, the national number is 08444 111 444 the East Durham CAB is 0191 586 2639.
