{"id":382,"date":"2020-03-26T09:55:19","date_gmt":"2020-03-26T09:55:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/llanfihangelystrad-cc.org.uk\/?p=382"},"modified":"2020-03-26T09:55:20","modified_gmt":"2020-03-26T09:55:20","slug":"newyddion-gan-heddlu-dyfed-powys-news-from-dyfed-powys-police","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/llanfihangelystrad-cc.org.uk\/gb\/newyddion-gan-heddlu-dyfed-powys-news-from-dyfed-powys-police\/","title":{"rendered":"Newyddion gan Heddlu Dyfed Powys News from Dyfed Powys Police"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>BEWARE OF COVID-19 SCAMS<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Unscrupulous\ncriminals are exploiting fears about COVID-19 to prey on members of the public,\nparticularly older and vulnerable people who are isolated from family and\nfriends. National Trading Standards is warning people to remain vigilant\nfollowing a rise in coronavirus-related scams that seek to benefit from the\npublic\u2019s concern and uncertainty over COVID-19.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Members of the\npublic should ignore scam products such as supplements and anti-virus kits that\nfalsely claim to cure or prevent COVID-19. In some cases individuals may be\npressurised on their own doorsteps to buy anti-virus kits or persuaded into\npurchasing products that are advertised on their social media feeds. In\naddition, some call centres that previously targeted UK consumers with dubious\nhealth products are now offering supplements that supposedly prevent COVID-19.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Communities are\nalso being urged to look out for signs of neighbours being targeted by doorstep\ncriminals. While there are genuine groups of volunteers providing help during\nself-isolation, there have been reports of criminals preying on residents \u2013\noften older people or people living with long-term health conditions \u2013 by\ncold-calling at their homes and offering to go to the shops for them. The\ncriminals often claim to represent charities to help them appear legitimate\nbefore taking the victim\u2019s money. There are genuine charities providing\nsupport, so consumers should be vigilant and ask for ID from anyone claiming to\nrepresent a charity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>COVID-19\nscams identified include:<\/strong>\n<br>\n<strong>Doorstep crime<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Criminals\ntargeting older people on their doorstep and offering to do their shopping.\nThieves take the money and do not return.<\/li><li>Doorstep\ncleansing services that offer to clean drives and doorways to kill bacteria and\nhelp prevent the spread of the virus.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Online scams<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Email\nscams that trick people into opening malicious attachments, which put people at\nrisk of identity theft with personal information, passwords, contacts and bank\ndetails at risk. Some of these emails have lured people to click on attachments\nby offering information about people in the local area who are affected by\ncoronavirus.<\/li><li>Fake\nonline resources \u2013 such as false Coronavirus Maps \u2013 that deliver malware such\nas AZORult Trojan, an information stealing program which can infiltrate a\nvariety of sensitive data. A prominent example that has deployed malware is \u2018<em>corona-virus-map[dot]com\u2019<\/em>.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Refund scams<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Companies\noffering fake holiday refunds for individuals who have been forced to cancel\ntheir trips. People seeking refunds should also be wary of fake websites set up\nto claim holiday refunds.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Counterfeit\ngoods<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Fake\nsanitizers, face masks and Covid19 swabbing kits sold online and door-to-door.\nThese products can often be dangerous and unsafe. There are reports of some\npotentially harmful hand sanitizer containing glutaral (or glutaraldehyde),\nwhich was banned for human use in 2014.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Telephone\nscams<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>As\nmore people self-isolate at home there is an increasing risk that telephone\nscams will also rise, including criminals claiming to be your bank, mortgage\nlender or utility company.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Donation\nscams<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>There\nhave been reports of thieves extorting money from consumers by claiming they\nare collecting donations for a COVID-19 \u2018vaccine\u2019.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Loan sharks<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Illegal\nmoney lenders are expected to prey on people\u2019s financial hardship, lending\nmoney before charging extortionate interest rates and fees through threats and\nviolence<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>People are\nbeing encouraged to protect their neighbours by joining <em>Friends Against\nScams<\/em>, which provides free online training to empower people to take a\nstand against scams. To complete the online modules, visit <a href=\"http:\/\/www.friendsagainstscams.org.uk\/\">www.friendsagainstscams.org.uk<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>NTS is also <a href=\"https:\/\/www.friendsagainstscams.org.uk\/shopimages\/coronavirus.png\">issuing urgent advice<\/a> to help prevent people falling victim\nto COVID-19 scams through its <em>Friends Against Scams<\/em> initiative.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Members of the\npublic are being urged to keep in contact with family members regularly and\ninform them of the most prolific scams and the possible dangers to them. If\nsomeone has been targeted by a scam it can be reported to Action Fraud online\nat&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.actionfraud.police.uk\/\">www.actionfraud.police.uk\/<\/a> or by calling&nbsp;0300 123 2040. For advice\nand information on how to check if something might be a scam, visit: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.citizensadvice.org.uk\/consumer\/scams\/check-if-something-might-be-a-scam\/\">www.citizensadvice.org.uk\/consumer\/scams\/check-if-something-might-be-a-scam\/<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The full press\nrelease is available <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nationaltradingstandards.uk\/news\/beware-of-covid19-scams\/\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>BEWARE OF COVID-19 SCAMS Unscrupulous criminals are exploiting fears about COVID-19 to prey on members of the public, particularly older and vulnerable people who are isolated from family and friends. National Trading Standards is warning people to remain vigilant following a rise in coronavirus-related scams that seek to benefit from the public\u2019s concern and uncertainty&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-382","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-newyddion-news"],"translation":{"provider":"WPGlobus","version":"3.0.2","language":"gb","enabled_languages":["cy","gb"],"languages":{"cy":{"title":true,"content":true,"excerpt":false},"gb":{"title":false,"content":false,"excerpt":false}}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/llanfihangelystrad-cc.org.uk\/gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/382","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/llanfihangelystrad-cc.org.uk\/gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/llanfihangelystrad-cc.org.uk\/gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/llanfihangelystrad-cc.org.uk\/gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/llanfihangelystrad-cc.org.uk\/gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=382"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/llanfihangelystrad-cc.org.uk\/gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/382\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":383,"href":"https:\/\/llanfihangelystrad-cc.org.uk\/gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/382\/revisions\/383"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/llanfihangelystrad-cc.org.uk\/gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=382"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/llanfihangelystrad-cc.org.uk\/gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=382"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/llanfihangelystrad-cc.org.uk\/gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=382"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}