Devon County Council scam caller warning

Devon County Council is urging residents to be on their guard following a number of complaints about a telephone caller, who claims to be from the authority, and asks about a recent accident.

These calls are not from, or authorised by, the council but appear to be a scam to try to get residents to provide personal details.

The caller introduces themselves as an officer from Devon County Council and then asks about an accident in the past year or two and talks about making a compensation claim.

The full extent of the scam is unclear at the moment, but the Head of Devon and Somerset Trading Standards Service, Paul Thomas, is warning residents to stay vigilant. He said:

“The council would not under any circumstances ‘cold call’ residents and try to obtain personal information.

"Unfortunately these sort of scam calls, where the caller pretends to be from a local authority or well known company so you trust them and give them your personal details, are on the increase.

“Luckily the people who have contacted us have quickly realised that the calls were a scam and we are very grateful to them for getting in touch.

"What concerns us is that there may be elderly or vulnerable people out there who continue with the conversation and are duped into giving out personal and financial information.

“People need to be extremely cautious if they receive one of these calls and our advice is that they do not provide any personal details and terminate the call.

"If people are unsure about the identity of any cold caller, they should check the number is legitimate, rather than using any details or numbers the caller supplies them with.

“We need to work together to send a clear message to these scammers that we know what they are up to, and it is not worth targeting our residents. I urge people to share our advice with their friends and family so everyone knows what to do if they get one of these calls.

"Our residents are our eyes and ears, and should report these latest scams involving Devon County Council, or any other public service, to Citizens Advice Consumer Service on 03454 04 05 06

"We can use this intelligence to help our investigations and take action where it's needed."

If you want to learn more about scams and how to avoid them, you can visit the Devon & Somerset Trading Standards Service website Scams page at ww.devonandsomersettradingstandards.gov.uk/scams.

Details of emerging scams are posted regularly on Devon & Somerset Trading Standards Service's social media channels - www.facebook.com/tsconnected and www.twitter.com/tsconnected – like or follow for all the latest consumer news.