Category: The Authorities

Surrey Scammer Caught

Thomas Proudfoot 21, of Leatherhead in Surrey pleaded guilty to computer misuse, money laundering and several counts of fraud following an investigation by the Dedicated Card and Payment Crime Unit (DCPCU), a specialist police unit funded by the banking and finance industry.

He was sentenced to 4 years and 8 months in prison and also received a Criminal Behaviour Order to prevent further fraud offences.

Proudfoot had been conducting scams based around Covid business grants.

He would send out scam text messages that offered victims Covid-19 grants and asked them to click a link to a fake website.

The website asked for the victim’s personal and financial details which he could then use to steal from them.

Proudfoot also designed software which he sold as a service to other fraudsters, the court heard.

He also admitted to hacking a private business website and providing other individuals with software to help them commit fraud offences.

The Police found that he was selling methods to complete smishing and phishing fraud, including possessing copies of fake web pages relating to Covid-19 and other organisations.

Detective Sergeant Ben Hobbs at the DCPCU, said: “This sentencing is a warning to those who believe they can benefit financially from fraud that they will be caught and punished. The DCPCU will continue to clamp down on the criminal gangs seeking to use the pandemic to defraud people.

Good riddance, at least for a while, to a thief targeting vulnerable people during the pandemic.

If you have any experiences with these scams do let me know, by email.

Fightback Ninja Signature

The End of Keurboom Communications

Keurboom Communications was created by Gregory Rudd for the purpose of making cold calls – illegally.

He had no interest in respecting people’s wishes not to be cold called, he ignored the Telephone Preference Service and he ignored the law.

As a result, his company was handed the highest ever fine for nuisance calling after more than 1,000 people complained about automated calls.

The calls, made during an 18

month period, including road traffic accident claims and PPI compensation. Some people received repeat calls, even on the same day and during unsociable hours. The company also hid 

its identity, making it harder for people to complain.

It is thought the company made up to 99.5 million such calls.

The law says that companies can only make automated marketing calls to people if they have given consent. Keurboom ignored this and called without consideration.

Following the ICO’s investigation, Keurboom Communications Ltd was placed in voluntary liquidation and Gregory Rudd banned for 6 years from being a company director.

How to Block Nuisance Callers

  1. Register with the Telephone Preference Service (TPS) then reputable companies will no longer make sales and Marketing calls to your number.
  2. Use your phone to block repeated unwanted callers and caller ID withheld numbers. Some phones allow you to do this and some services such as BT Call Protect enable this.
  3. Use the magic phone number when a website demands your number. (More information at https://fightback.ninja/a-magic-phone-number-and-call-blocking/)

If you have any experiences with scammers, spammers or time-waster do let me know, by email.

Fightback Ninja Signature

Company Director Gets 6 Year Ban For Nuisance Marketing Calls

Phone Caller

Shaun Harkin was the sole director of Easyleads Limited, a company that generated sales leads for other businesses through telephone marketing calls, but he was knowingly breaking the law.

Cold callers cannot phone people indiscriminately – especially not those registered on the Telephone Preference Service i.e. registered as not accepting cold calls.

The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) received many hundreds of complaints about automated calls from numbers used by Easyleads.

The ICO warned of their investigation into the new complaints.

Despite this warning, Shaun Harkin continued his cold calling campaigns and the ICO continued to receive complaints about Easyleads.

The ICO issued a £260,000 fine against Easyleads for making unsolicited marketing calls to people without their consent and failing to include a company name and contact details in the recorded message.

Easyleads failed to pay the debt so the ICO got the court to wind up the company.

Investigations by the Insolvency Service found that the company had made around 16 million automated marketing calls to members of the public.

Many complainants were from people who said they received multiple calls, while others complained about being called in the early hours of the morning.

From July 2018, Shaun Harkin is banned from directly or indirectly becoming involved, without the permission of the court, in the promotion, formation or management of a company for six years.

Hopefully he will learn to treat the public in a better manner rather than as people to be taken advantage of.

If you have any experiences with these scams do let me know, by email.

Fightback Ninja Signature

Illegal Medicine Websites

There are countless Internet sites selling drugs and medicines, without prescription, that should only be available with a Doctor’s guidance and prescription.

The reasons people buy medicines from Internet sites can be just about saving money but can also be about anonymity, fear of approaching a doctor, ignorance of the dangers involved and so on.

There is a government campaign called #fakemeds with a website at https://fakemeds.campaign.gov.uk/

You can use this to check if a website you are thinking of buying from is registered to sell medicines and you can report suspected fake medicines and suppliers.

In 2016, Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) seized more than 4.6 million fake medical products and closed thousands of websites selling medicines illegally. Many potentially dangerous products seized by the MHRA had not tested for safety and in some cases were found stored in dirty, rat-infested warehouses and garden sheds.

The three key messages are

  1. More than half of all medicines bought online are fake
  2. Side effects can include heart attacks, strokes and death.
  3. Buying from dodgy websites also increases the risk of being ripped off through credit card fraud or having your identity stolen.

The #fakemeds campaign is run by MHRA and a recent study in co-operation with Slimming World shows:-

  • One in three slimmers have tried slimming pills purchased online.
  • 77% were enticed by promises of rapid weight loss, more than half were attracted to being able to order discreetly and 44% ordered online because they didn’t want to speak to a GP or pharmacist.
  • 63% suffered unpleasant side effects after taking slimming pills bought online. These side effects included diarrhoea, bleeding, blurred vision and heart problems. Worryingly, four out of five didn’t report these side effects to anyone.
  • Four out of 10 respondents said they had used the slimming pills knowing there were health risks, with more than 62% doing so because they were ‘desperate to lose weight’.

Be careful buying medicine online and if you should get a prescription for the product then do speak to your doctor and do not risk your health on cheap dodgy products.

Do leave a comment on this post – click on the post title then scroll down to leave your comment.

Fightback Ninja Signature

How To Report An Unsafe Place to The Police Using Streetsafe

 

If you or someone else are in danger then you may need to call 999. That’s not what Streetsafe is about.

As part of the government’s agenda to tackle violence against women and girls, we are trialling a new online tool called StreetSafe to enable people, particularly women and girls, to report locations where they feel or have felt unsafe and to identify the features on why that location made them feel unsafe.

StreetSafe is also not for reporting crime or incidents.

StreetSafe is a pilot service for anyone to anonymously tell the Police about public places where you have felt or feel unsafe, because of environmental issues, eg street lighting, abandoned buildings or vandalism and/or because of some behaviours, eg being followed or verbally abused.

The focus of the pilot is to identify particular areas and factors that lead to people feeling unsafe and might help offenders either commit or conceal a crime – such as street lighting, abandoned buildings or poorly designed spaces, vandalism, as well as behaviours of individuals or groups of people.

You can report on Streetsafe without needing to give any identity details, so it is anonymous.

Streetsafe asks where you felt unsafe and why. Possible reasons include:

Environmental (related to places/locations) :

  • Absence of CCTV
  • Badly lit e.g. poor or no street lighting
  • Empty buildings or isolated places
  • Poor street layout e.g. blind spots and hidden areas
  • Restricted visibility e.g. overgrown bushes and trees, walls
  • Rundown e.g. derelict buildings, abandoned cars, graffiti, fly-tipping etc.
  • Signs of drug or alcohol use
  • Other

Behavioural (related to people) :

  • Verbal harassment from / by a single stranger
  • Verbal harassment from / by a group of people
  • Feeling like you are being followed / have previously been followed
  • Other forms of harassment

What is StreetSafe?

The data from StreetSafe will be made available to Police and Crime Commissioners and local policing teams to share with local authorities and other stakeholders as part of their community partnerships to have a better understanding of geographical profiles and inform their community safety activities.

If you have any experiences with Streetsafe do let me know, by email.

Fightback Ninja Signature

 

What is The New 159 Anti-Fraud Hotline?

Each year, hundred of millions of pounds are stolen from people by scammers pretending to be from their bank.

In late autumn 2021, a new 159 fraud hotline was created to counter the epidemic of online fraud connected to bank accounts.

On calling 159, the person is put through to their bank’s fraud prevention service who will take the information and deal with the problem.

Anyone who receives a call or message from somebody claiming to be from a trusted organisation and who suggests money should be transferred is being urged to hang up and call 159.

In 2020, criminal gangs stole over £470m by pretending to be the victim’s bank or other service provider.

Call 159 if:

  • Someone contacts you saying they’re from your bank – even if they do not appear to be suspicious
  • You receive a call asking you to transfer money or make a payment – even if it seems genuine
  • You receive a call about a financial matter and it seems suspicious

Remember, 159 will never call you.

Who is behind 159?

159 has been set up by banks and telephone companies who want to fight fraud. It’s a pilot scheme initially and the following banks are part of it: Barclays, Lloyds (including Halifax and Bank of Scotland), NatWest (including Royal Bank of Scotland and Ulster Bank), Santander, Starling Bank.

That covers over 70% of UK primary current account holders.

159 is a pilot scheme – the idea is to collect evidence to show that calling 159 helps fight fraud. Then hopefully, 159 can become available on all phones and for all banks.

The new service is being promoted by Stop Scams UK – a coalition of banking and technology companies.

If you have any experiences with these scams do let me know, by email.

Fightback Ninja Signature