Heading into Christmas we are going to share some of the more prolific scams that are being reported on the Island.

The main one being a computer generated call stating that payments have been taken from your Visa/Mastercard account and to press 1 to report a fraud. This scam also takes the form of a payment from your Amazon account. This time of year when we are all doing a lot more shopping this may panic us into responding to the instructions on the message however all of these calls are SCAMS – do not respond.

Other reports describe the same method but claim they are the Bank or Council Tax refund department – these organisations will NEVER contact you in this way

The number they are calling from sometimes starts 01983 which may give it a sense of legitimacy but scammers will buy any available UK numbers so don’t always trust a number that starts 01983

The best way to prevent yourself from being the victim of a scam is to set up some type of call blocking on your landline, free if you are a Wightfibre, Sky or Talk Talk customer or you can purchase call blocking phones. The National Scams Team currently have a supply of free call blocking units that anyone who is particularly vulnerable or a repeat scam victim can apply for Friends Against Scams - Call blocker

I would like to thank you all for your support in sharing these messages to the more vulnerable in our community and wish you all a very safe and Happy Christmas