The “A-Levels” and students, and parents have the anxious wait for results next month. The hopefully many will find places at University, College or other places of Further Education. Whilst these are exciting times for all involved, there can be areas where new, and existing students may be vulnerable to Scammers and Fraudsters. In fact, many existing student may already be searching for the next term’s accommodation.

Rental Fraud.
Rental fraud happens when would-be tenants are tricked into paying an upfront fee to rent a property. In reality, the property does not exist, has already been rented out, or has been rented to multiple victims at the same time. The victim loses the upfront fee they have paid and is not able to rent the property they thought they had secured with the payment. Rental fraudsters often target students looking for university accommodation.

Protect yourself.

Do not send money to anyone advertising rental properties online until you are certain the advertiser is genuine.

If you need to secure accommodation in the UK from overseas, seek the help of the employer or university you are going to, or get a friend, contact or relative to check the property exists and is available.
Do not pay any money until you, or a reliable contact, has visited the property with an agent or the landlord.
Ask for copies of tenancy agreements and any safety certificates such as Gas, Electricity or HMO Licence.
Do not be pressurised into transferring large sums of money. Transfer funds to a bank account having obtained the details by contacting the landlord or agent directly after the above steps have been followed. Be sceptical if you’re asked to transfer any money via a money transfer service like Western Union.
Other current scams existing and potential students need to be aware include:

HMRC Scams
In previous years Students taking part time jobs have been at increasing risk from fake messages claiming to be from HMRC, often offering tax refunds.

Basically, these are phishing messages to glean personal and financial details off the victim.

HMRC will only ever contact customers who are due a tax refund in writing by post. They do not use telephone calls, emails or external companies in these circumstances. Anyone who receives an email claiming to be from HMRC should send it to phishing@hmrc.gsi.gov.uk before deleting it permanently.

Student Loans
There have also been phishing scams claiming to come from the Student Loans Company. They often target first year students and dupes them into handing over personal information to steal their identity and defraud them.

They often tell the victim their details are out of date or incomplete, and provide a link to a fake website where they can harvest their details.

If in doubt, contact the Loans Company direct using a listed number

Money Mules. Be very cautious of unsolicited job offers or opportunities to make easy money. These Fraudsters will pretend to offer legitimate jobs or get rich quick schemes via emails and target vulnerable groups, such as Students, who may think this is an easy way to make money.
Basically the Fraudster recruits innocent people to transfer stolen money overseas using the victim’s bank account, who will then be asked to transfer the money onwards, perhaps also being allowed to keep some money for themselves.

PARKING SCAMS

There have been recent reports, both locally and nationally, of residents receiving texts and emails claiming you have unpaid parking fines. Some of these even claim to come from DVSA but usually they fail to identify a vehicle or location for the alleged parking offence.

So always check the website address which may appear to mimic an official website address with small changes. Never click on any links in unexpected text messages or emails or follow the instructions to log into any accounts.

Any suspicious website can be reported to National Cyber Security Centre

via https://ncsc.gov.uk

Many Pay Machines in public car parks also have QR codes to scan on the side of the machine to set up payments. These can be tampered with, or covered over, with fake QR codes so always check if there are any signs that the QR label has been replaced.

Please feel free to share these messages with any vulnerable friends, relatives, or neighbours, especially anyone of pensionable age.

A MESSAGE FROM THE SAFER NEIGHBOURHOOD TEAM:

No sooner than the NHS announces that patients with obesity problems will be able to access the weight loss injections as a free service from the family doctor, the criminal seizes another opportunity to defraud unsuspecting victims with celebrity endorsements for similar products.
The current endorsements for such products are sent by emails and texts and give the impression they are endorsed by certain stars of Dragon Dens, amongst others. Previous endorsements have promoted investments opportunities, household products, and fake competitions, all bearing images of genuine celebrities but posted without their knowledge.
How to protect yourself?
Check that the account or profile for the “Celebrity” is genuine, or that this is a genuine Brand account
If the advert asks for payments of personal information, check it is genuine before parting with these details
If the character endorsing the product offers a video promotion, then check for anything out of character. Also look for jerky face movements or if their speech sounds strange.
Would a genuine Celebrity ask for money?
Another recent scam featuring various celebrities offers a private meeting backstage after their show. Not surprisingly a payment is asked for the privilege with the payment often requested by Gift Cards or Bitcoins, so untraceable and not retrievable.
Any suspicious website can be reported to National Cyber Security Centre via https://ncsc.gov.uk
FAKE GARDENER
There have been reports of gardening services being offered locally via a Facebook page. The person asks for a deposit when a booking is taken to carry out a gardening job, but the “Gardener” never turns up and potentially, the deposit paid is lost.
As with any tradesperson, no payment should be made until the person is on a site and the work completed as described and agreed. It is always advisable to ask for a written quotation on headed notepaper for larger jobs.
Please feel free to share these messages with any vulnerable friends, relatives, or neighbours, especially anyone of pensionable age.
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If you’ve fallen for fraud
Report it to Action Fraud on 0300 123 2040 or via actionfraud.police.uk
Scam Text messages can be forwarded to 7726 to help phone providers take prompt action and block numbers that generate spam on their networks.
You can also report fraudulent mobile calls by texting 7726 with the word “Call” followed by the fraudster’s phone number.
Forward Fake Emails received to report@phishing.gov.uk
If you think your bank account or personal banking details have been used fraudulently, then use the short phone number - 159 - to contact the Fraud Prevention Department of most major UK banks.