A REALLY GOOD 48 HOURS
NO BURGLARIES TO REPORT
AND
ONLY ONE CAR BROKEN INTO
FIRST:- JUST A REMINDER - THE OLD ‘WATER BOARD’ SCAM IS STILL WITH US.
Incident Location: KNOWL HILL
A male claiming to be from ‘Anglian Water' has attended callers house twice now in the past few days.
First on Sunday at 08:30 and again on Monday at 08:40. Both times, he was insistent that he had been sent to do work on her house, but caller had no knowledge of it, so sent him away.
Caller has checked with her housing association today, to see if there was anyone due to come and they have confirmed that no one was booked in.
The man is described as: White Male / 50's / 6ft / Medium Build / Grey Hair / Wearing dark trousers, dark fleece Jacket / Had a tool box and an Ipad with him.
Can I remind everyone - we no longer have ‘A water Board’ and haven’t done for many years. Anglian Water, would not cover this area anyway ! We have ‘Thames Water’ !
If anyone comes and says they have a schedule to do some work in your house - and you as the homeowner don’t know and you have not been informed by letter - you send them packing !
NEXT: I HAVE RECEIVED SEVERAL ENQUIRIES ABOUT SILENT CALLS:
I would just like to confirm - you are not being targeted by anyone personally.
Some people believe the calls are from potential burglars, trying to find out if you are home. That is not the case. It is a computer that calls you.
Scammers / fraudsters based abroad, use computers to generate millions upon millions of random sets of numbers, which the computer automatically dials. 99.9%, are not even telephone numbers, but the computer is programmed, too dial them anyway. In the same way they generate random sets of letters and symbols in the hope og finding real email addresses which they email out – again by the million.
If a generated set of numbers actually rings, it means it is a real telephone number and it is transferred, to another database. The computer does this say, 100 sets of numbers at a time. If one rings and someone picks up the phone, the other 99 are immediately cancelled, as that call is passed to someone in a call centre. That is what the silent calls are – the abandoned calls.
Those numbers will though, remain on the database as potential telephone numbers and will be dialled again. There is no human hand in the process - merely a computer programme.
If you have had a silent call - it means the computer has generated a real number and this time, another person picked up the phone, but the number will stay of the ‘real number database’ and you can expect to receive future scam calls, as the fraudsters sell these databases to other scammers for vast amounts of money.
So - whenever you pick up the phone - you only answer with ‘Hello’. The call has been generated by a computer and passed to a call centre. The call handler has no idea who you are or where you live, so they will try and get that information from you. Your name for example - could give away your age. They could ask to speak to your spouse - if you say they have passed away, or are at work, or out at the moment - that is valuable information. SO - ONLY ‘HELLO’. IF IT IS AN UNSOLICITED CALL - JUST REPLACE THE RECEIVER IMMEDIATELY, WITHOUT SAYING ANOTHER WORD.
If your phone has call number display - the number shown, will generally be fake. Scammers know that if it displays an international number, you are less likely to answer, so it displays local UK numbers. Don’t rely on it, or 1471.
If you have an answerphone - make sure the message does not give away personal information - such as a single woman’s name - which your mean she lives alone ! So -a bare minimum message - ‘Hello, sorry I can’t take your call at the moment, please leave your name and contact details and I will get back to you’ No ‘names’, no ‘sorry we are out’, ‘I am on the golf course’ - just a bland message please - you never know who is listening to it !
hence the response should be no more than hello – or you provide the scammer with personal information – of who the telephone number belongs to !
Thanks Helga for the reminder - I hope this helps ?
NEXT: THE CLEAR CAR CAMPAIGN - to combat theft from motor vehicles.
We along with our close partners the RBWM Community Wardens under Senior Community Warden Wayne Eveleigh, are carrying out, Clear Car Campaigns right across the Borough. Along with our PCSOs while out on patrol they are looking for cars, with items left on display. As you will have seen from Alert messages, this includes laptops, shopping bags, mobile phone left on dashboards charging, sets of valuable golf clubs, etc. etc. These items act as a ‘Crime Attractor’. A jacked left on a seat could contain a wallet, if left suspiciously spread out over a seat, it could be covering something valuable. If women go to the great park to walk dogs, they often leave their handbags …….. under the passenger seat. Laptops are often left hidden under the driver’s seat, but still visible. Our Opportunist Thieves know what to look for and obvious hiding places. The Police and Community Wardens are often shocked by what they see. The Opportunist thief, will not be paying for a smashed window, or suffer the inconvenience of having to have it fixed ! They will smash a window, for sunglasses or loose change, left visible in the centre console. Often as you will have read from reports, they find handbags on the passenger seat or a wallet in a side pocket.
PLEASE DO NOT LET IT BE YOU
We do have an issue in RBWM with tourists, who are here for the day and have nowhere to leave their luggage, but on display in their car. This means we will attract opportunist thieves for those easy pickings. While doing that, you car is at the same risk, if you have left anything on display - whether or not you feel it has any value.
After a Clear Car Campaign sweep, we prepare a list of cars, indexes, where they were and what was in them.
CRIME
I have attached reference numbers to each crime report. If you live in the vicinity of any of the crimes mentioned and have CCTV or a video doorbell, can you please check the footage. If you have any that might be of interest to the police, can you please make contact with us, quoting reference number given.
I have added a new email address below. The first email address is directly to your local Neighbourhood Team. The second is to our investigation team. Please use it to send any intelligence / video doorbell / CCTV footage you may have, which is relevant to any of the crimes lists below - quoting the reference number.
Alternatively you can call 101 or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111 or email -
www.crimestoppers-uk.org MAIDENHEAD CENTRAL:
maidenheadcentralgeographical@thamesvalley.pnn.police.ukSR.windsor&
maidenhead@thamesvalley.pnn.police.ukNO CRIME TO REPORT.
RIVERSIDE & BELMONT:
NO CRIME TO REPORT.
MAIDENHEAD WEST
maidenheadwestgeographical@thamesvalley.pnn.police.ukSR.windsor&
maidenhead@thamesvalley.pnn.police.ukBISHAM, COOKHAM, HURLEY, THE WALTHAMS, LITTLEWICK GREEN & KNOWL HILL:
NO CRIME TO REPORT.
PINKNEYS GREEN & FURZE PLATT:
9/11 Monday 8.20 a.m. Whurley Way. Car rear windscreen smashed and gym bag stolen. Ref. No: 43200366761
MAIDENHEAD SOUTH
maidenheadsouthgeographical@thamesvalley.pnn.police.ukSR.windsor&
maidenhead@thamesvalley.pnn.police.ukBOYN HILL, COX GREEN & WOODLANDS PARK:
NO CRIME TO REPORT.
OLDFIELD, BRAY & HOLYPORT:
NO CRIME TO REPORT.
MEMBERS’ COMMENTS:
FIRST: The standard - Someone has died here, with a name similar to yours, with no family, but a bank account containing millions of dollars. This one is from ‘Lawson Edmold’
It is not addressed to anyone, but states that you have failed to respond to numerous emails about $9.8m, left in an account of someone with a similar name ………………………and it is now urgent as the money is about to be seized and lost….Please respond immediately, to secure a share of this money.
BIN IT - DON’T DO IT - DON’T LET IT BE YOU !
NEXT:- From Graham, who has received a similar email - but this time there is nearly £70m on offer ! It is called an- Advance Fee Fraud
Hi Jeff
I received two separate copies of a letter in the post this morning and thought you might like to make residents aware of this classic fraud, which looks as if it might be circulating around town.
These types of scams have been around for more than 30 years and I saw them in London, when working for various international banks. The latest twist, is to try to relate the scam to the current corona virus.
In essence, what the scammer is attempting to do, is to get you to agree to his proposal and then get some valid looking email sent to you, to tell you that the funds are on the way to your bank, but can you, in the meantime, can you pay some of the admin costs, associated with the transaction. The cost suggested, may be a few hundred dollars, but in multiple payments.
Of course, you never receive any funds into your bank account, but if the scammer is convincing enough, he gets away with possibly a few hundred, or even thousands of dollars.
This is known as an “advance fee fraud” which used to be perpetrated by groups out of Nigeria, but whose knows who is behind this latest spate.
Regards
Graham
Graham has attached a scan of his letter. It comes from the Bank of Okinawa in Japan. Someone there, with a last name similar to his has died leaving an account balance of $68,980,369, which is about to be forfeited and seized by the government, unless Graham can assist with details of his bank ………
BIN IT - DON’T DO IT - DON’T LET IT BE YOU !
NEXT: There have been a large number of scams involving Amazon Prime. This may be part of that series:
Hi Jeff
I keep getting a text asking me to register for a credit card that I haven’t applied for. I says it’s a Amazon Platinum Card.
John
The text says that there is a problem on his application for a Platinum card …… If this was not you ……. Please contact them.
BIN IT - DON’T DO IT - DON’T LET IT BE YOU !
NEXT: A BT scam:
Good Morning Jeffrey,
I wonder if you are aware of the scam BT email I’ve just received.
This is the second such email I’ve received and it looks legitimate in terms of branding, signature etc.
I know BT wouldn’t use such an aggressive tone and there are typos, nevertheless, it could still worry a lot of subscribers.
I did ring BT on the first occasion and they confirmed it was a scam but there was little they could do.
You may wish to share this.
Kind Regards,
Penny
The email looks good, with header and logos. It says that they will be changing the charges on her account as from the 11/11. It goes on to say she should - CLICK ON THE LINK - to see how the charges will be changing. She will be asked for personal details and security information, to verify that is really her responding. If she doesn’t respond, her account will be immediately suspended !
Classic scam email
It is unaddressed and opens with - Hello
An inducement - to see changes to charges
Urgency - she must respond within 24 hours
A threat - if she doesn’t respond - he account will be suspended.
If an email has these 4 parts - it is a scam.
BIN IT - DON’T DO IT - DON’T LET IT BE YOU
