Warwickshire residents are warned to be on their guard against bogus officials offering council tax 'refunds'.The fraudsters operate by ringing or texting residents claiming to be from the local council, valuation office or some other company which deals with changes to Council Tax banding.
They suggest that the resident is due a council tax 'refund'. They will then ask for personal and bank details to allow them to process the 'refund' or provide a telephone number for residents to ring to provide this information. This information can then be used for fraudulent purposes.
Any Warwickshire residents receiving such a contact are advised not to give out any personal or financial information and to end the call as quickly as possible. It has been reported that some callers can get aggressive and ring back if you put the phone down, but this is all part of the scam to make you act as they want.
To report a suspected incident of the scam, please contact Consumer Direct on 08454 040506.
The email alert system is a quick, simple and cost effective means by which Warwickshire Trading Standards can alert interested individuals, community organisations, businesses, charities and others to the latest Trading Standards issues/scams etc.
Please feel free to cascade this information to whom ever you feel appropriate (including using the information in your newsletters/websites etc.). Please ignore the Restricted Notice on the bottom of this page - this is automatically generated but is not meant to apply to the information in this email.
The email alert system is designed to work as a two way communications system. Therefore, if you have any information you wish to provide to Warwickshire Trading Standards Service, either for our information, or to appear in future email alerts, please email me.
To add, amend or remove your details from this email circulation list, again, please email me.
A list of all the latest email alerts is available on our website: www.warwickshire.gov.uk/tradingstandards
Simon Cripwell
Senior Information Officer
Trading Standards Service
Environment and Economy Directorate
Warwickshire County Council
tel. 01926 414039
mob. 07771 975570
email. simoncripwell@warwickshire.gov.uk
web. www.warwickshire.gov.uk
My normal working days are Monday to Thursday
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