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In this issue:
We are recommending that if work needs to be done
on your property, known and reputable traders should be used. Residents should
be extremely wary of any doorstep caller looking to carry out gardening or
building work.
This warning comes following reports of a Walsgrave resident who has
been repeatedly visited over the past few weeks by several traders who have
carried out various jobs including roofing work, repairs to fence panels and
tarmacking of foot paths, all of which has been done to a poor standard.
On each occasion the traders left no clue as to who they were.
We have also had a report in the Eastern Green area of the city as well.
We have issued previous warnings over the year after reports of rogue
traders carrying out poor quality repairs and charging inflated prices,
sometimes even driving the victim to the bank to withdraw money or threatening
them. Some incidents have even involved threats or coercing people into
withdrawing cash from the bank.
Our advice is not to deal with unexpected cold callers offering any kind
of service or trying to sell you something on your doorstep
If you do need work on your property or garden, use a reputable local
trader who has been recommended by friends or family or someone who has been vetted
and is part of the Age UK (Coventry) Trusted Traders Scheme, a partnership with
Coventry Trading Standards. This service is available
to people of all ages
living in the Coventry area and can be contacted by phoning 024 7643 3982.
British nuisance call blocking company
trueCall is waging war on cold callers by introducing a free telephone number
to be used when completing online forms. When asked to enter a phone number on
a web form you can use: 0333 88 88 88 88 (three threes, eight eights).
This should hopefully reduce the number
of nuisance calls you receive as some companies openly trade such information
as your telephone number to others.
Anyone ringing the number will then
get the following message: “trueCall38 is handling my calls. I prefer not to
be contacted by phone, so please contact me via my email address. Goodbye!”
Some organisations such as airlines or
hospitals will need your telephone number in case they need to change departure
times or appointments but others, such as price comparison websites, online
shops, charities, or theatre booking sites don’t but they won’t allow you to
complete the application form without it.
Some organisations may get wise to
this and may set up their form to will reject the number but truecall 38 intend
to have a “The Wall of Shame” on their website where companies that block the trueCall38 number will
be named.
A similar scheme 'frank geht ran'
(Frank answers it) has been working successfully in Germany for a
number of years.
More details about the trueCall 38
scheme can be found at www.trueCall38.co.uk.
Coventry
residents should be wary of unexpected phone calls asking if they have ever
worked in a factory or noisy environment that may have affected their hearing
following a report from a Holbrook’s resident.
These
callers are looking for people who may be able to make a claim for industrial
deafness and will ask for a lot of personal information and also try to arrange
hearing tests. They are looking for nothing more than ‘leads’ with the
information being sold on to claims management businesses, or no-win-no-fee ‘lawyers’
who would seek to pursue a claim for compensation, and in doing so taking a
large fee from any compensation gained.
Our advice is to never hand over personal information to any cold caller,
be it over the phone or at the doorstep. In view of the recent changes in
pensions, there is also the likelihood that such information could also be sold
on to the more unscrupulous companies offering a free ‘pension review’ or a
‘one off’ chance of investment.
Some
people may be entitled to Industrial Injuries Disablement Benefit if they have
become ill or disabled following an accident or disease caused by work. For
more information, visit www.gov.uk or get advice from the Citizens
Advice Bureau.
For
more information on pension scams and how best to protect yourself, visit the
Pensions Regulator website.
Yekta Foods recalls their spice Sommak due to the presence of Orange II and
Sudan dyes, which are red dyes that are used for colouring solvents, oils,
waxes, petrol and shoe and floor polishes.
- Batch no: 25152
- Pack size: 150g
- Best Before end: 30-08-2016
Advice: If you have bought the above
product, do not use it. Instead, return it to the store from where it was
bought from for a full refund.
For
more information on scams, visit: www.coventry.gov.uk/scams
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