Barrow man warns of PPI claimers targeted in phone scam
Last updated at 16:36, Tuesday, 04 December 2012
A SON has warned people to be on their guard after his 68-year-old mother almost fell foul to an expensive telephone scam.
The latest in a number of telephone scams reported to the Evening Mail by concerned readers, the callers in this case claimed to be from a company helping people reclaim wrongly sold payment protection insurance (PPI).
Charles Walduck, 44, said his 68-year-old mother had been bombarded with calls saying she had been awarded £3,800 as a result of a PPI claim she had made.
However, the callers claimed the money would only be couriered to her Barrow address if she bought a Ukash voucher for £175.
They then asked her to provide them with the voucher’s serial number after she had bought it, so that they could claim the money back from Ukash.
Mr Walduck, who lives in Manchester, said his mother had been susceptible to the scam as she had made a PPI claim.
She had been close to doing as the caller asked before she rang her son for advice.
Mr Walduck told his mother to ignore them, he told the Evening Mail.
“I just want to warn other people,” he said.
“She is in her very late sixties and she gets very confused.
“She has had six calls from them already.
“They say things like ‘But don’t you want this money?’. It is all pressure and bare-faced cheek. It has really distressed her.”
There have been reports of similar scams involving Ukash vouchers in the UK, including in North Yorkshire.
Ukash advise people never to pass on a voucher code over the phone or by email because they risk losing their money.
The company’s website says only participating Ukash merchants use the vouchers for making payments online and they would never ask for details to be sent via email or over the phone.
A spokesman for Cumbria police said people should always verify who was calling them if they claimed to be from a business.
If they had any suspicion or doubt at all they should refuse to do what they asked, he said.
Anyone who thinks they have been contacted by a telephone scammer can ring Cumbria police on 101 to report it.
First published at 16:32, Tuesday, 04 December 2012
Published by http://www.nwemail.co.uk
I'm fed up with these calls regarding ppi,they ring my house they ring my mobile and even text my mobile.Surely there's a law on this,i'm x directory so how do they get my number
Have your say
Ex-Directory doesn't mean that people can not contact you. There are other ways that companies get hold of your phone number. One of the major reasons why you get these type of calls is companies that you deal with - energy suppliers, telephone service providers, etc - sell your data on to other companies or companies who are list brokers. List brokers can then sell your data on to others who want to buy it & depending on what details of yours were sold on, services could be highly targeted at you. For example, a wheelchair service company could go to a list broker and buy data that only includes data of people who are 60 years old or over.
If you'd like help with your nuisance phone calls, come through to www.optoutuk.com . We'd be more than happy to help you. After all, it's what we do.Posted by Zak on 7 December 2012 at 14:58