The , Dittons & Neighbourhood Watch Group

Chairman – John Haberfield Contact Tel 0208 398 5256 Email [email protected]

SPRING / SUMMER 2015

Special Scams Edition You will no doubt have seen the recent revelations in the press concerning the sale of volumes of individuals’ pension, medical and other personal data. If you weren’t already, this should convince you that there are organisations out there that know a lot about you. Now having your personal data they may attempt to target you to sell you products or services, which may be legitimate or could just be scams; either way, they will be after your money! This just adds to the existing plethora of scams and needs to be treated in the same way. You could be approached to reinvest your pension fund or take out medical insurance, but it could equally be anything else; double glazing, solar panels, security alarms, a damages claim for PPI mis-selling, road accident or medical negligence, or many more. Regardless, however you are contacted (by email, phone, letter, or doorstep caller),and no matter how convincing the approach might seem to be, the safest and most sensible response is to ignore it or just say ‘no thanks, I’m not interested’ and refuse to participate in any further discussion. Delete the email, bin the letter, hang up the phone, or shut the door. Think about it; if you were really interested in what they’re offering, you would have already looked into it yourself; and if you are now interested, do look into it yourself! Do your research; seek quality consumer guidance (e.g. from Citizens Advice Bureau) on the best organisations to provide sound advice, and then shop around and find several options from different providers before making any decisions. And the best option may be ‘do nothing’. John Haberfield

Scams in the spotlight (part 1: more in the next newsletter ……) We receive so many notifications of new scams that it’s impossible to pass them all on without overwhelming members with too much information. However, almost every new item is a ‘variation on a theme’ so what this article sets out to do is to outline the basic types of scam, the logic behind them, and hopefully how to spot them and avoid being hoodwinked. One way to categorise scams is by how they are sent to you, i.e. written, by voice or in person. With the first we mean text, either by email (possibly involving a link to the internet) or letter; these can be implemented by criminals with no direct human involvement, and not necessarily even from within the UK, so at very low risk to themselves. By voice, we mean by phone; this requires more time, effort and ingenuity from the criminals as they have to make one-to-one contact and spend time in a conversation with you where you can ask questions and are more likely to recognise the scam. It’s still fairly low risk for them, as they could be phoning from anywhere in the world. Finally, ‘in person’ means someone at your door, attempting to con you face-to-face. This is the most time-consuming and costly for them (it involves travel time and costs) and the most risky – they’ve been seen, can be identified and could be caught. Email scams are the criminals’ favourite; they can target thousands of potential victims with minimal cost and risk, as sending emails costs nothing and they can do this from anywhere in the world. They acquire huge lists of email addresses by buying or stealing them. Each time you provide merchants with your email address and contact details you’re on another list. Merchants sell or share their lists with partner organisations (if you’ve ticked their data privacy boxes allowing them to do so – ‘would you like to receive information from our partners‘ etc.). Criminals exploit weaknesses in network and computer security of suppliers and email service providers to steal customer data lists. They target addresses they’ve acquired with emails designed to trick recipients into unwittingly allowing them access to their PCs, where the criminals can then access emails and contacts to add to their own lists to target or sell on. So, one way or another, it’s very likely that criminal gangs will have your email address and you’ll be a target for their scams. (These methods are also used to obtain addresses to target malicious emails –with viruses etc.) The aim of most email scams is to trick recipients into believing they have received a genuine message from an organisation they trust and to act on the content of the email. Criminals will construct an email with all the look and feel of one from a real organisation, typically a bank, building society, credit card company, on-line supplier, high street chain store, mobile phone company, Post Office, parcel delivery service etc. Take as an example a fake ‘Barclays Bank’ email. This will be sent to thousands of addresses; many recipients won’t have a Barclays account so it should be obvious that there’s something wrong, but some will have and may be fooled. If it’s sent to 10,000 addresses and 5% have a Barclays account, then there are 500 potential victims. If similar messages are sent purporting to come from other high street banks, the hit rate continues to rise. If criminals are successful in convincing recipients the email is genuine, what are they after? With a bank, payment card provider or similar, the most lucrative outcome is to persuade recipients to part with enough information (ID, password, PIN etc) to give them direct access to their accounts. They can then quickly empty accounts or run up huge card bills. They’ll attempt to persuade recipients there’s been a problem (security breach, unauthorised access to their account, etc.) that requires them to follow a link in the email to the bank’s website, where they’ll need to login to deal with the issue. Of course, the bank’s website is fake (probably a good one) and all the login does is provide the criminals with the information they need. Emails allegedly from on-line or high street suppliers are aimed at capturing information to allow criminals to masquerade as recipients, change account details (e.g. delivery address) and order expensive items. These are more risky to the criminals, as they involve delivery addresses where the criminals have to collect delivered goods, which could be watched by the police if the scam has been discovered. Hopefully these examples should persuade you that you should be suspicious of any communication that asks you to provide personal information, to open an attachment to an email, or click on a link to web site.

Tips on Email scams  Fraudsters will try and fake emails from almost any reputable organisation (recent examples: Adobe and LinkedIn) to trick you into opening an attachment or following an internet link, which will infect your PC with software to capture personal data such as bank account or credit card details, IDs and passwords. NOTE: Never open the attachments or click on the links. If you are uncertain whether the emails are genuine, don’t use any information in the email; check elsewhere for the organisations genuine phone number or web site and call or log in there.  It’s the start of a new tax year. Watch out for emails from HMRC; one offering a tax rebate for which you need to provide your bank account details including password, another telling you you’re made a mistake on your self-assessment form, which will require a copy of your passport to confirm your identity. NOTE: Never respond to these emails! If in doubt, look up the real HMRC phone number and call them. Tips on telephone scams  Fraudsters may try to convince you they’re a genuine organisation e.g. the police, or a fraud department of a bank, credit card company etc. They’ll already know many of your personal details. They’ll spin a story to persuade you something fraudulent has occurred with your account and to prevent it, or to protect your money, you need to allow them to access your account on-line, or handover your PIN numbers and bank cards to a courier, or transfer your funds to a ‘safe’ account etc. To prove they’re ‘genuine’ they may ask you to phone the police, or your bank or the fraud number on the back of your card to confirm. NOTE: Real banks etc. will not call you like this. They will not ask you for account details or PIN numbers. The criminals will not hang up when you end their call to phone for confirmation, so it will still be them pretending when you make that call. (If you really want to make that call, make another call first – to a friend, the speaking clock, anything to ensure they are no longer on the line).  Have you received a call from Microsoft (or one of their approved partners), who have identified that your PC is running slow because it has been infected with a virus and you need to give them access so they can correct it? How do you tell if this is genuine? NOTE: It’s simple. It’s a scam. Neither Microsoft nor any of its partners will EVER phone you. What’s more, nobody can tell how your PC is performing, or if you’ve even got a PC. Don’t believe me? If this happens to you, tell them you don’t have a PC – they can’t argue with that!  An elderly victim in was targeted with a phone call from a woman claiming to be a police officer saying she needed to phone 999 to verify her details. Needless to say, the woman wasn’t a police officer and the line had not been disconnected. She then spoke with a male (also allegedly a police officer) and was told that due to an incident of fraud, she would need to get £10,000 in euros to be collected by a driver. Due to the actions of an alert, quick thinking taxi driver, the scam was unsuccessful. NOTE: • Never give personal information about your bank account to anybody over the phone; If you have and it could compromise your bank account security, call your bank to cancel your cards as soon as possible. • If someone calls claiming to be a police officer, ask for their identification number, police force and their telephone extension. Advise that you will call them back using the 101 number and hang up the call. • If possible use a different phone line to call back, e.g. a mobile if the call was received on your landline. If not, make another call, to a friend, the speaking clock etc. to confirm the original caller is off the line. • Never hand over money to someone at the door to be sent off elsewhere. •If someone at your door claims to be a police officer or staff member, always ask for identification and make note of their identification number. Tips on Letter scams  A recent fraudulent letter from ‘Euro Millions Peoples International Postcode Lottery’ informs you that you’ve won. It asks for a fee to release funds, or requests your personal details including bank account. NOTE: If you don’t remember entering the lottery it’s because you didn’t! It doesn’t exist. Never respond to any letter that involves a fee or giving personal details.  Parcel delivery scam; cards have been delivered from fake delivery companies claiming a parcel in your name is held for delivery and giving a phone number to call to pay a £10 admin fee by credit card. NOTE: There is no parcel. Do not call the number or give your card details.

A note from our Crime Reduction Advisor Disappointingly, there is no hiding that crime has increased in this last period, following predominantly steady crime figures over the last couple of reports. As I said, disappointingly, there was what we call a couple of series, in relation to burglary (West Molesey in particular), and vehicle crime (The Dittons area). Two persons, not linked, have been arrested and charged separately for burglaries, and a subsequent decline in the frequency of offences was seen. The burglaries were across Molesey and the Dittons – entry was predominantly by gaining access to the rear of a property and then forcing windows or rear doors, often using tools found at the scene. On a number, the side gates were not secure or very easy to climb over. The burglaries - non dwelling - were a mixture of shed and garage break-ins, in one series a male was arrested but unfortunately there was insufficient evidence to charge. A male was arrested and charged in relation to vehicle crime in The Dittons which saw a definite decline in the amount of offences. I am not surprised at the huge rise in thefts from vehicles when at one stage ONE HUNDRED PERCENT of all attacked vehicles had been left insecure; it is just an open invitation to criminals to come to Elmbridge, as you don’t even have to break a window to get goods. Although this report has been negative regarding crime figures but positive in that persons have been charged with both burglary and vehicle crime offences, I want to end on a positive note; over the coming months 3 PCSO’s will be coming to Molesey and the Dittons, which will increase visibility in the area. Elaine Burtenshaw Crime Reduction Advisor

CRIME STATISTICS 1st September 2014 – 28th February 2015 Previous 6 months figures in ( )

East Molesey & Dittons & Hinchley 2014 Spring West Molesey Totals Wood Totals

Burglary-Dwelling 20 (19) 25 (6) 24 (19) 69 (44) 60 Burglary-Non Dwelling 42 (12) 7 (8) 24 (13) 73 (33) 30 Theft Of Vehicle 2 (2) 11 (2) 3 (4) 16 (8) 21 Theft From Vehicle 20 (16) 12 (7) 49 (21) 81 (44) 55 Criminal Damage MA/ 9 (23) 35 (53) 44 (29) 88 (105) 93 Robbery-Person 0 N/A 0 N/A 0 N/A 0 N/A 0 Robbery-Business 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 2 N/A * No Robbery statistics were submitted for the last newsletter so they are non-comparable.

Neighbourhood Panel Meetings - Dates to put in your diary

West Molesey The Library, The Forum, Walton Road – 8:00 pm, Wed 24th June 2015 – 8:00 pm, Wed 16th Sept 2015 East Molesey Refresh, 129 Walton Road – 7.30 pm, Wed 27th May 2015 – 7:30 pm, Wed 19th Aug 2015 & Weston Green All Saints Church, Weston Green – 8:00 pm, Tue 23rd June 2015 St Mary’s School, Sugden Road – 8:00 pm, Thurs 14th May 2015 Hinchley Wood St Christopher’s Church Hall – 8:00 pm, Thurs 9th July 2015 Numbers To Keep Useful Websites

IMMEDIATE POLICE RESPONSE 999 www.ourwatch.org.uk

www.banksafeonline.org.uk POLICE NEW NON-EMERGENCY 101 www.bba.org.uk Police www.surrey.police.uk www.cardwatch.org.uk

CRIMESTOPPERS (anonymous) 0800 555 111 www.communities.gov.uk www.crimestoppers-uk.org www.crimeconcernuk.net www.getsafeonline.org CRIME REDUCTION ADVISER (CRA) www.homeoffice.gov.uk ELAINE BURTENSHAW 101+ 37350 www.identitytheft.org.uk [email protected] www.rightupyourstreet.net

www.surreycc.gov.uk POLICE STATION 101 Monday-Friday: 8:45am to 5:00pm www.surreypa.gov.uk www.thisismoney.co.uk TRADING STANDARDS 08454 04 05 06 www.immobilise.com via Citizens Advice consumer service Residents Associations: ELMBRIDGE COMMUNITY SAFETY 01372 474398 www.esher-residents.com Email: [email protected] www.moleseyresidentsassociation.org.uk Twitter: http://twitter.com/ElmbridgeBC# www.hinchleywood.org.uk www.residents-association.com(Thames Ditton & Weston Green) NOISE COMPLAINTS 01372 474750 www.longditton.org

ABANDONED VEHICLES, GRAFFITI, LITTER Clean Up Line 01372 474474 Crime Maps These can be found on www.police.uk/ SURREY FIRE & RESCUE 01737 242444 then select ‘Find Your Neighbourhood’ Home Fire Risk Check 0800 085 0767 and type in your postcode

Contact Centre 03456 009 009

VOLUNTARY ACTION ELMBRIDGE 01372 463587 SelectaDNA Forensic DNA marking kits still available for the www.vae.org.uk fantastic price of £18.00 – original price £49. TELEPHONE/FAX/MAIL PREFERENCE SERVICE To order: Email [email protected] or call John Haberfield. To stop unsolicited sales or marketing calls

Phone www.tpsonline.org.uk 0845 070 0707 Information for Residents About The No Cold Fax calls www.fpsonline.org.uk 0845 070 0702 Calling Sticker Scheme Mail www.mpsonline.org.uk 0845 703 4599 Fed up receiving visits at your home from cold calling To report suspicious activity call: traders? Concerned about rogue traders calling on your elderly or vulnerable neighbours, seeking work?  Crimestoppers – 0800 555 111 If so, say "no" to cold calling doorstep traders with a  Anti-Terrorist Hotline – 0800 789 321 Surrey Trading Standards door sticker. Contact your Crime Reduction Advisor or Or in an emergency call 999 Elmbridge Community Safety

Neighbourhood Panel Meetings Visit www.surrey.police.uk, put in your postcode and view Meeting Points for any set dates.

NHW SIGN INSTALLATION Tracey Spreadborough Tel: 020 8979 2660 Email: [email protected]

Keep Them Out!  Remember Burglars don’t like security  Remember Lock your car at all deadlocks on doors because they can’t open times when parking and don’t leave them from the inside, and have to leave valuables on view through a window  Remember Most burglars enter a  Remember Double check that all windows premises from the rear, and many and doors are securely locked before leaving burglaries take place during the day home.  Remember Burglars don’t like  Remember Make sure sheds and gates are locked windows, because breaking locked, and outside bins are not left where the glass attracts attention burglars could use them as a stepping stone.

 YOUR NHW STREET CO-ORDINATOR IS: