Each year Trading Standards receives hundreds of complaints about the many different types of scams people are encountering. South Gloucestershire Council’s Trading Standards Service, along with the other services in the South West, have produced some guidance leaflets and ‘No Doorstep Traders’ door stickers as part of the SCAMWISE campaign. The aim of this campaign is to reduce the number of people caught out by scams and rogue traders.
Some recent examples of scams appearing in South Gloucestershire are:
- Traders cold-calling, saying they have tarmac left over from doing some work for the highways department and offering to tarmac driveways for a low cost. The work is of a poor standard so the cost turns out to be relatively expensive;
- Traders cold-calling and offering to undertake roofing repairs that appear to be unnecessary;
- Cards being put through letterboxes suggesting that they were unable to deliver a parcel and giving a telephone number to contact. It appears this telephone number is a premium rate number and you could incur a cost of £15 without realising;
- Unsolicited telephone calls being received requesting the names and addresses of residents under the pretence that they are being invited to an event, however the event does not exist. These calls could have a number of purposes – to use personal details for fraudulent activities, or to ensure properties are empty for criminal reasons for example.
The leaflets we have produced provide advice on how to recognise a scam and protect yourselves from them. These leaflets and door stickers can be requested from Trading Standards via Consumer Direct on 08454 04 05 06 or you can download them by clicking on the links.