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In this issue:
 We first warned against this scam in June 2014. However, we have now had another report from a local Canley resident regarding a letter they received claiming they had won £825,000 in the People’s Postcode Lottery. In order to claim their ‘prize’ recipients are asked to contact ‘Anthony Stan’ on 0208 584 0057 at ‘UK Security Solution’, but there is a clearance fee to be paid which is unspecified.
In Grimsby, a local resident who had the same letter, called this number to be told that a ‘processing fee’ of £4,200 would have to be paid to ‘release’ the prize money.
This is a scam - if you pay this money you will get nothing; and if you send one payment, they will contact you again and try to con you out of even more.
Protect yourself and ask yourself, how could you win a lottery if you haven't bought a ticket? Never reveal credit card or bank account details unless you're sure who you're dealing with.
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Trading standards across the country are reporting complaints of companies attempting to possibly scare consumers with claims of a rise in burglaries into accepting a free burglar alarm which then ties them into a long term monitoring contract costing thousands of pounds.
We are therefore urging residents to say no to companies offering these ‘free’ appliances, who may also claim they are working with the Police or as part of a government scheme or that they are researching for a fire and a security alarm system company.
In the last week the Police sent us details of an elderly Radford resident, who, despite being registered with the Telephone Preference Service [TPS] still received a telephone call from an alarm company offering to visit them in their home the following day.
Thankfully the resident decided to check the company out and called the Police who agreed to attend at the same time the salesman was due.
As a result of this intervention the elderly resident was saved from possibly agreeing to have an alarm fitted for which they would have to pay for the monitoring, upkeep and rapid response facilities for many years, which could have added up to thousands of pounds.
We are currently carrying out an investigating and will be making a ‘Subject Access Request’ asking the alarm company where they obtained the residents details from and why they telephoned someone who was registered with the TPS.
Our advice – do not agree to any visits to your home following a telephone call that has come out of the blue. Instead, if you are interested in having an alarm, talk to family, friends or neighbours first.
 We have had three recent reports of rogue roofers calling on elderly residents offering to carry out a variety of roof jobs in the City such as repairs to ridge tiles, putting capping tiles on and jet washing the roof.
Two have been in Walsgrave and the other in Longford and in each case work has been carried out following a knock at the door. Substantial sums have been paid by unsuspecting residents and in every case very little is known about the traders who carried out the work as none provided any written quote or receipt. They also failed to give residents their written cancellation rights, a legal requirement and a Criminal Offence for non-compliance.
Trading Standards are warning people to be very cautious if offered roof repairs or similar work at the doorstep.
If you suspect you have been targeted by a rogue trader, or know of one, get in touch with Trading Standards and if possible include names, descriptions, the type of service they are offering and, if possible, vehicle models and registrations.
Also be wary of any recent advertising flyers offering similar services that may have been put through your letterbox especially those with little or no information as to the trader’s address or those which give addresses well outside the City which makes checking them out more difficult.
If you would like to report a rogue trader or doorstep crime contact the Citizens Advice consumer service: 03454 040506 or use our online reporting form.
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A local Tile Hill resident has reported a company who telephoned them claiming to be from Sky technical support. They were advised that their Sky box warranty had expired and were being encouraged to take out a new agreement at a cost of £90 a year.
The resident was then asked to provide full bank details so as to confirm the company had the correct information on their system. At this point, the resident became suspicious, and refused, but asked for a contact number to call back on.
The resident then called Sky directly who confirmed that the originating call was not from them, and that the contact number given was not associated to Sky.
Our advice:
Be very wary of any unsolicited calls requesting your personal and bank details.
If you are a customer of the company calling then take details of the call and hang up. Then contact the company on a number you know to be correct. If you are a Sky customer and you have received a call like this then contact Sky directly using a telephone number from a recent statement.
A cap on the amount that payday lenders can charge their customers was announced by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) on 11/11/2014.
Payday loan rates will be capped at 0.8% of the amount borrowed a day and in total, no one will have to pay back more than twice what they borrowed. Fixed default fees will be capped at £15 to help protect borrowers struggling to repay.
The FCA said the changes would ensure someone taking out a loan for 30 days, and repaying on time, would not pay more than £24 in fees and interest per £100 borrowed
The new loan restrictions will come into force on 2nd January.
 We are highlighting the following safety recall notice issued by the retailer Joules.
Product Code: R_BABYBFABFLUFF and R_BABYGFABFLUFF socks - available from the Joules website since 23 September 2014 and at selected stores and stockists since 9 September 2014
Excess fluff can detach from the socks, causing a potential risk. Although there are no reports of any injuries, please return the socks as soon as possible for a full refund.
The socks can be returned to any Joules store or, if purchased from a stockists to the stockist’s store where the purchase was made, or alternatively please contact their customer services team: 0845 2507170 and they will send you a free return label for you to send the product back to them in the post. As soon as the product is received they will issue you with a full refund.
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For
more information on scams, visit: www.coventry.gov.uk/scams
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