Speaker: Sergeant Joint, MPS - Avoiding Scams

Fraudsters can be extremely believable and can come across as very nice people. That was the warning message given to us this week by Sergeant Tobin Joint, Twickenham Police, when he came to talk to us about Avoiding Scams. Not everyone is out to con you but it is a sad fact that we must all remain vigilant against people who are out to deceive for monetary gain. Several of our own members admitted to being victims of fraud or attempted fraud.
Sergeant Joint told us that a popular scam at present is to get a phone call supposedly from your bank saying that your credit card has been used fraudulently. You are tricked into revealing your pin number and a courier is sent, supposedly by your bank, to pick up your card which is then used to fleece your account.
In another example a parcel company will deliver flowers and ask for a very small credit card payment for underpaid postage. The payment terminal is actually a card reader to extract your card details.
Fortunately action is being stepped up in an effort to trap criminals and make fraud less profitable. There is much greater cooperation between regional police forces and a special unit called Action Fraud has been set up to coordinate anti-crime efforts.
A very informative talk and Sergeant Joint is available to talk to other community groups on the subject of fraud prevention.