Action Fraud has received several reports in the last 24 hours from businesses who have been sent online extortion demands from scammers threatening a cyber-attack. 

The scammers, who call themselves the “RepKiller Team”, have been sending emails to businesses across the UK demanding payment of between £300-£500 in Bitcoins by a certain date and time. 

If the demands are not met, the team have threatened to launch a cyber attack against the businesses and their reputation by automating hundreds of negative reviews online. 

The emails also claim that once actions have started, they cannot be undone. Although these scammers are currently calling themselves “RepKiller”, it is common for fraudsters to continually change and adopt new tactics – email names can be made and changed easily.

 What to do if you receive one of these emails?

• Do not pay the demand. There is no guarantee the scammers won’t launch an attack and could encourage further extortion demands in the future.  
• Retain all the original emails. Should law enforcement investigate, the information contained within the email headers can be used as evidence. 
• Maintain a timeline of the attack recording all times, type and content of contact.
• Whether the attack is attempted or successful, you should report it to Action Fraud on 0300 123 2040 or by using our online reporting tool.

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In January, we issued a warning following a report of a man trying to sell fully packaged Samsung TVs from the back of a white unmarked transit van.

We are now reissuing the warning following a further report of a male approaching people in a supermarket car park in Dorchester Way, offering brand new TVs for sale from the back of a small white van.

Trading standards advice - don't buy products from the back of a van! Remember - buying such items by these means are risky, as you will probably not be able to contact the trader should something go wrong with the product. Also, the item may be stolen, unsafe, not work or you may not get what you are shown.

If you have any information that may help us track down these sellers or you wish to report any incidents involving a rogue trader or doorstep crime, contact us on 08454 040506 or use our online reporting form.

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The Nut House Ltd has recalled its range of ‘Tasty Bake’ brand cakes because the products contain milk, which is not mentioned in the ingredients list on the packaging. This means the products are a possible health risk for anyone with an allergy or intolerance to milk or milk constituents.

Product details: ‘Tasty Bake’ brand cakes
Pack size: all sizes
Best before date: 29 May 2016 (no later batches are affected)

 The range of flavours:

• Angel Cake
• Apple Cake
• Banana Flavour Cake
• Carrot Cake
• Cherry & Walnut Cake
• Cherry Madeira Cake
• Chocolate & Vanilla Marble Cake
• Coconut & Cherry Cake
• Dundee Cake – Almond Topped
• Dundee Cake – Cherry Topped
• Farmhouse Cake
• Genoa Cake
• Ginger Cake
• Lemon Cake
• Victoria Sponge Cake
• Walnut & Cream Cake

Advice: If you have bought the above products and have an allergy or intolerance to milk or milk constituents, do not eat it. Instead return it to the store from where you purchased it.

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HEMA is recalling its chocolate flavoured meringues which contain soya that is not declared on the labelling. During production of the chocolate meringues, a number of packs were incorrectly labelled with the back label of the vanilla meringues. As a consequence, the label does not state that the product contains soya. This means the product is a possible health risk for anyone with an allergy to soya.

Pack size: 130g
Best before’ date: 13 August 2016
Article number on incorrect label: 10950001
Production Code: 20362T and 2036U

Advice: If you have bought the above product and have an allergy to soya, do not eat it. Instead return it to the store from where you bought it.

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