Warning over telephone scams
July is National Scams Awareness Month, an initiative by Citizens Advice which aims to empower UK consumers to get advice, report scams and tell others about their experiences.
Call blocking specialists, CPR Call Blocker, is getting behind the initiative by highlighting the top telephone scams that are catching consumers out in order to ensure that people in Devon are not victims of financial fraud.
Telephone scams continue to be the most prolific type of scam with Action Fraud reporting that 33% of scams take place over the phone followed by 16% through online sales, 13% on email and 7% by post.
CPR Call Blocker is advising people in Devon to be aware of the following types of telephone scams which are currently causing problems to consumers:
¨ Pension scams – 8.4m people have been offered unsolicited pensions advice or reviews since pensions freedoms were introduced in April 2015 with 68% of this contact being made over the phone. Watch out for offers of large returns on investment, pressure to sign paperwork and access to pensions before the age of 55.
¨ Investment scams – If you receive unsolicited calls offering wine, shares, rare earth minerals and land investments overseas then these are likely to be scams.
¨ Computer scams – Consumers are being told they have a problem with their computers which can be fixed for a small fee. Older and less technologically aware people are most susceptible to this type of scam.
¨ Government Grant Department scam – people are being offered a grant of several thousand pounds for being a good citizen and being asked for a fee to release the money.
¨ Vishing – scammers impersonating someone from a bank, police or other plausible organisation and manipulating you into sharing financial and personal details.
Kris Hicks of CPR Call Blocker comments: “We are really proud to get behind National Scams Awareness Month and to help educate people in Devon on the new types of scams that are doing the rounds. Criminals and unscrupulous call centres are continually finding new ways of scamming people out money and our own research shows that 15% of UK consumers have lost money to scams in the last 12 months with 4% of those losing over £10,000. What’s more, 70% of people feel that there isn’t enough support available for victims of telephone scams.
“It’s initiatives such as National Scams Awareness Month that can empower people to take action and regain control over their telephones. People are being urged to trust their gut instincts when it comes to being offered services over the phone and if it sounds to good to be true then it most likely is.”
If people in Devon feel that they have been the target of a scam they can contact Citizens Advice on 03454 04 05 06, report the scam to Action Fraud on 0300 123 2040 and make friends and neighbours aware so that they do not become victims themselves.
An immediate solution to the problem is to install a call blocker to your landline which allows you to cut off unwanted calls as they come in and permanently stop them from calling you again. CPR’s latest product, the V5000 is a call blocker that is already installed with 5000 known nuisance phone numbers and gives consumers to option to add a further 1200. Just by plugging the device into your landline phone, most consumers will see instant reduction in the number of calls being blocked.
If you are concerned about nuisance calls and want more information about how to stop them then visit www.cprcallblocker.com/tips.
