Borough Council encourages residents to be aware of scammers - The Redditch Standard

Borough Council encourages residents to be aware of scammers

Redditch Editorial 21st Feb, 2019   0

REDDITCH Borough Council is encouraging residents to stay aware of scams and attempted deception in the town.

A number of unsolicited emails, telephone calls and door-to-door fraudsters falsely claiming to be bank officials, council officials or government-backed debt advice services, have been reported to the council’s Community Safety Team in the past few weeks.

A spokesperson for the Borough Council said: “Emails claiming to be from the local council and offering a tax rebate, in which they ask for personal banking details, will be fraudulent.

“Many of these frauds are run by organised criminals working overseas who want to steal from bank accounts.




“Often these criminals do not know if the email addresses being used are real or relevant to the area so by not responding and deleting it straight away you reduce your risk of being targeted in the future.”

Door-to-door callers are offering driveway improvements or tree cutting services, saying they are ‘council approved contractors’ but this is not true.


Visits from a council officer will always be pre-booked with residents and the officer will have proof of ID.

Residents are encouraged to sign up to the ‘Nominated Neighbours’ scheme which has been proven to deter cold callers before they knock on the door because they do not want their details checked and confirmed.

Cold callers will be directed to a nominated, trusted neighbour who will check the identity of the caller and return to the neighbour’s address with them if they are a genuine caller.

Posters are available to put up in residents’ windows to warn cold callers that the house operates the scheme.

Coun Gareth Prosser(Con,Crabbs Cross) whose portfolio covers Community Safety, said: “These criminals are the lowest of the low for targeting the most vulnerable and trusting members of our society.”

For more information contact the council’s Community Safety Team on 01527 881472 or email [email protected].

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