TRADING Standards in Warwickshire have issued a warning to local residents both in the county and outside to beware scam phone calls.
They said: “Fraudsters are again phoning Warwickshire residents claiming to be from the Telephone Preference Service and asking for credit and debit card details to subscribe to the service or renew the service,” said a spokesperson.
The Telephone Preference Service is a free service. The TPS will never contact residents asking for any bank information.”
In another incident a resident reported receiving an unexpected phone call from someone claiming to be from BT to say they had arrears on their landline.
When the resident said they were a Virgin customer the caller changed their tune and claimed to be calling from Virgin!
In another case: “A resident reported receiving a phone call from someone claiming to be from Her Majesty’s Revenue & Customs to say they were taking a ‘lawsuit’ against him. The resident quickly spotted it was a scam and described the caller as having an American accent,” said the spokesperson.
“A second resident received a similar call, this time an automated one. The automated ‘HMRC’ message told the resident they should phone a number before legal action was taken against them. The resident phoned the number and spoke to someone who claimed a warrant had been issued for their arrest for non-payment of tax!”
Trading Standards are also warning people to beware of unexpected calls from fraudsters claiming to be from Severn Trent. One householder received such a call but put the phone down. They later contacted Severn Trent who confirmed the call was bogus.
