Help for businesses from South Glos

Some local small businesses have had a letter from Liam Dewsbury at South Glos asking for bank information and linking to a  South Glos web form. A resident asked us to check as they thought it might be a scam, but on Sunday (yes S Glos staff are working Sundays in the crisis) the Director of Finance has confirmed this is from S Glos.  Make sure you are only inputting your details into the web form on a South Glos official site. If you have any doubts, get in touch with us and we can check.

Shopping securely online

Action Fraud, the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau, have issued the following advice on shopping securely online in the run up to Christmas:

How To Shop Online Safely

Check the web address
Always check you’re on the correct website. Criminals can set up fake websites that have a similar design and web address to the genuine site.
 
Is it a secure connection?
Web pages you enter personal or financial details into should display a locked padlock sign and have a web address that starts with https. This means your connection to the website is secure.

Phishing
Don't click on links or attachments within unsolicited emails. The number of online shopping related phishing emails increases significantly during the holiday period.

Bank transfers
65% of Action Fraud reports during the 2016 Christmas period were linked to online auction sites. Don’t pay for goods or services by bank transfer unless you know and trust the person. Payments via bank transfer offer you no protection if you become a victim of fraud.

New telephone scam - don't fall for this one!

South Gloucestershire Trading Standards would like to remind residents to remain vigilant and suspicious of unexpected telephone calls. Some local residents have received unsolicited telephone calls about crime prevention and alarms. The caller claims to be ringing on behalf of the local ‘Safe and Strong’ group.

South Gloucestershire Council’s Safer and Stronger Community Groups DO NOT contact people unexpectedly by telephone to offer crime prevention advice or sell equipment such as alarms. THIS IS A SCAM.

If you receive a call claiming to be on behalf of the Safe and Strong group please hang up immediately.

If a telephone number is recorded on the 1471 facility, please report this to Trading Standards by contacting the Citizens Advice consumer helpline on 03454 04 05 06 (Mon-Fri, 9am-5pm)

Beware unsolicited phone calls from "Microsoft" - they're a scam

One of our readers reports receiving phone calls from "Alternate Windows Tech Support" or "Microsoft Computer Support". We've had a call too, but cut them off. Our reader went along with one of the calls to see what would happen.

The foreign-sounding caller asked them to carry out several "tests" on their PC, and when the PC brought up quite normal results, they said it was evidence that it was infested with viruses. Then they asked our reader to open up Remote Access so that they could control the PC and "cure" it (potentially downloading confidential data from the machine)

At this stage our reader stopped the call, but according to this article from the Guardian they then go on to ask for an appreciable sum of money to deal with the so-called "viruses"

It's suspected that they are targeting names from the phone directory, so it's quite possible that they may contact other local people.

As Microsoft themeselves say, "We do not send unsolicited email messages or make unsolicited phone calls to request personal or financial information or fix your computer. If you receive an unsolicited email message or phone call that purports to be from Microsoft and requests that you send personal information or click links, delete the message or hang up the phone"

Don't get caught out - these callers are after your money.