scam alert

November 2018
Hampshire Trading Standards are alerting residents to a telephone scam they are concerned about.   The call purports to be from Martin Lewis’ Money Saving Expert, and states that the resident is entitled thousands of pounds back on an old PPI claim taken out on a loan or mortgage.   In order to secure the claim, there is an admin fee of £150 to be paid.
In one case, the resident was asked to buy an Amazon gift voucher to the value of £150.  Once purchased the caller would arrange for a representative to deliver the cheque in person to their home address and view the voucher.  A cheque number and reference number was given. 
Money Saving Expert & Martin Lewis make it clear that they will never cold call people, and that this is a blatant attempt to scam people.  More information can be found on the Money Saving Expert web site.
Trading Standards suspect this is an updated version of the iTune gift voucher scam.  The scammers are after the code on the back of the voucher, which they can then sell online to recover the money.  Any cheque received by residents is likely to be fraudulent. 
To inform Trading Standards about scams or to receive advice, contact our partners at the Citizens Advice Consumer Helpline on 03454 04 05 06.  To report scams to the Police, contact Action Fraud on 0300 123 20 30
Hampshire Police on their non-urgent number 101 or dial 999 if you feel threatened or intimidated