Aylesbury MP urges local people to be scam aware

Democracy and Local Affairs, Health and Social Care, Homepage

As Scams Awareness Fortnight draws to a close, Aylesbury MP, Rob Butler, is calling for people to stay alert to COVID-19 related scams.

Rob said:

“Criminals have used the coronavirus crisis as an opportunity to attempt to scam innocent people and their businesses.

“Even the savviest person can fall victim to a sophisticated scam, so it’s important that we all remain vigilant, all year round.”

Some of the Covid-19 scams Rob’s concerned about are:

  •  advertising face masks or medical equipment at high prices
  •  emails or texts pretending to be from the government
  • emails offering life insurance against coronavirus
  • people knocking at your door and asking for money for charity without proper ID

Rob recommends following the tips from Citizens Advice:

• If you see emails or texts about coronavirus from someone you don’t know, or from an unusual email address, don’t click on any links or buy anything.
• Don’t give money or personal details to anyone you don’t know or trust – for example someone who knocks on the door and offers to help.

If you think you may have been scammed, Citizens Advice has an online scams tool to help you protect yourself from further risk and report the
scam: https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/consumer/scams/what-to-do-if-youve-been-scammed/.

More information from Citizens Advice on protecting yourself from scams can be found here: https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/about-us/our-campaigns/all-our-current-campaigns/scams-awareness-campaign-2020/#:~:text=Our%20annual%20Scams%20Awareness%20campaign,result%20of%20the%20coronavirus%20outbreak