Fraud and Cyber crime.

Mobile phone upgrade scams. 

Victims are being contacted by criminals purporting to be from their mobile provider offering a great deal on an upgrade. The criminal uses their personal information to apply for a new mobile contract, but intentionally order the wrong handset. When the victim receives the wrong handset, the criminals state that there was an issue with the order and they will need to send the phone to an address or will arrange for a courier to collect the parcel. The courier collections are arranged by the criminals and the return address is not affiliated with the mobile phone provider. Victims are sending the phones/allowing them to be collected without verifying the matter with the provider directly

Argos Hack.

We are in receipt of a number of reports where people are specifically reporting unauthorised transactions on their Argos accounts. It would appear that Argos has been hacked and criminals are unlawfully accessing persons accounts and submitting orders to the account. We are urging people to change their passwords, ensuring they use strong and unique passwords & remember to watch out for phishing attempts- don’t trust any links.

Police Impersonation. 

Local Police have received a number of reports from members of the public who are being contacted by persons claiming to be from the local Police asking for sponsorship from small businesses for a newsletter. Some of which relate to newsletters on local farming, online safety aimed at children and young people etc.