Surlingham

Rogue Trader Alert – Doorstep cold caller pointing out ‘loose tiles’

Residents are warned to be on their guard after two men cold called at a property in the Hellesdon area.

The men told the resident that they ‘could see some loose tiles on the roof’ and offered to ‘fix them’ for a small fee. The men then went onto the resident’s roof.

While they were on the roof, a member of the resident’s family arrived who intervened and told the cold callers to leave the property. The men were seen to leave in a blue Ford Transit van.

Scam Alert – ‘Brushing’ scams

We are warning about a new scam involving online deliveries called ‘brushing’.

This scam involves packages you didn’t order from online selling platforms like Amazon showing up on your doorstep.

Initially, receiving items you haven’t paid for might not seem like problem, some people might not regard this as a scam. You’re not being charged for the items, they’re not stolen as they’ve been paid for and they’re yours to keep.

But the reality is being involved in a brushing scam means that someone has gained access at minimum to your name and mailing address but depending on how they gathered this data potentially other personal and financial information as well.

Scammers do this to make the purchases look genuine and avoid violating the selling sites’ terms that prevent them providing reviews for their own products.

If you begin receiving packages that are addressed to you, but you did not order, contact the retailer immediately.

Following this, change the passwords to your online accounts in case the scammer has got your address by hacking an account. You may find if it is an online account you haven’t used for a while and you’re now ‘locked out’ it may be that the account has been taken over by the scammer.

If the volume of shipments becomes a problem, contact Royal Mail for help with holding packages until you can pick them up or otherwise handle the matter.

Scam Alert – Telephone cold calls claiming to be from BT

We have had a number of reports from Norfolk residents about telephone cold calls claiming to be from BT in the last few days.

The cold caller claims to be a ‘BT employee’ and states that your phone and broadband accounts will be terminated if you do not pay ‘your outstanding BT bill immediately’. The cold caller then attempts to gather bank or card details against the repeated threat of ‘your account being cancelled’.

We always advise to be wary of telephone cold calls and the claims made during them. If you receive a suspicious call claiming to be from BT, do not give or confirm any personal or financial details. Hang up, wait five minutes and then contact BT customer service on 0800 800 150.

Rogue Trader Alert – Doorstep cold callers selling tools

We are warning residents to be on their guard after receiving reports of doorstep cold callers in the Stalham area selling tools.

The cold callers were seen to be using a white Ford Transit van.

We advise never to deal with cold callers looking to do work on or around your property and never allow a cold caller access to your home, roof or gardens even if they are offering to do tasks for a small fee or for free.

Anyone concerned about possible rogue trader activity in Norfolk can contact Trading Standards through our partners the Citizens Advice consumer helpline via their online reporting form or by telephone on 03454 04 05 06.