Agenda item

To be presented by Aldo Simone, Trading Standards.

Aldo Simone, Bucks and Surrey Trading Standards, provided a presentation, appended to the minutes.  Aldo advised that Trading Standards prevented and safeguarded vulnerable residents from scams and supported scam victims.  Trading Standards worked in partnership with several other organisations to raise awareness.   Surrey Trading Standards provided an online training programme called ‘SCAMChampion training’ which trained people to give a presentation to people in their community.

There were many different types of scams which were differentiated by the way in which the criminal contacted the victim.  Once the fraudster had had a successful contact, the victim may be repeatedly targeted if the target facilitated the fraud to continue.  Several examples of scams were shown and the points to check were highlighted.  The main crux of the message was that links in any form of contact e.g., text, email, social media etc should not be clicked on; stop and think before responding to any random contact.  The level of sophistication was increasing and emails/messages appeared legitimate but when checking the sender’s email address, it was slightly different.  Trading Standards had seen a change in the type of scams; moving away from mail and doorstep and moving more to email, text message and social media. 

‘True call’, a call blocking device could be loaned to residents who had been subjected to nuisance phone calls; contact Trading Standards to request one.  Video doorbell cameras were available; their presence could often prevent fraudsters approaching.   Sticker packs were also available to deter traders; the benefit of a sticker was that it was legally enforceable, whereas ‘no doorstep selling’ zones did not carry the same legal weight.  Aldo stressed that residents should not accept random offers of financial help; they should always go to a bank or the Citizens Advice Bureau for financial advice.

The following key points were raised in discussion:

• The Chairman highlighted that there was a scam circulating regarding registering a credit card to pay for a covid test.
• Contact Makyla Devlin, Senior Community Board Manager, if you would like to receive door stickers.
• In response to a query on whether the door stickers provided enforcement against ‘Nottingham Knockers’, Aldo explained that anyone going from door to door should have a Pedlar Licence.  Any incidences of people door knocking without a licence should be reported to the Police.  It had been found that there was sometimes an uptake in the number of burglaries in locations where Nottingham Knockers had been active.
• It was noted that some housing associations/estates did not allow tenants to install video door cameras.  Aldo advised that sometimes just a sticker saying that CCTV was in operation was enough of a deterrent.
• Aldo confirmed that one of the main roles of Trading Standards was to provide individual support to victims of fraud.  Contact should be made with Aldo or Pei Harper or the Trading Standards Response Team - trading.standards@surreycc.gov.uk, aldo.simone@surreycc.gov.uk.  Makyla – do you have Pei’s email addresses please?

The Chairman thanked Aldo for attending and invited him back next year.