Residents warned of telephone scam

LOCAL people are being warned about a telephone scam after an elderly resident was told she needed urgent work doing to her roof.

The local resident received a telephone call advising that the roof of her house was in a poor state, was in danger of damaging a neighbour’s property and that police would be involved if she did not get it fixed immediately. The caller then went on to ask for credit and debit card details and when these were not given, said they would be round to the house to take the lady to the bank to obtain money.

On this occasion, they did turn up to the house and tried to gain access.

Wiltshire Police are advising people that the police would not get involved with general house maintenance issues and on this occasion it appears to be an attempt at threatening the home owner into complying with the scammers’ request for money.

Westbury Town Council offered this advice to local residents, “Please do not agree to any work to be carried out as a result of an unsolicited telephone or house call. Do not give cold callers your bank card details and do not allow yourself to be bullied into going to your bank to take money out for these unscrupulous people. Tell any such callers that you are terminating the call and notifying Police.

“Please pass this information on to friends and family. Finally, if this does happen to you, please call Wiltshire Police straight away with as much information as possible including telephone numbers or names used, and vehicle registrations if you can safely get them.

“Your telephone provid-er may be able to offer free call-blocking from nuisance callers or withheld numbers if you wish to explore this, and please do not ever feel pressured into opening the door to anybody you do not know.

“Wiltshire Bobby Van can carry out free home security assessments to residents over the age of 60. If you or anyone you know could benefit from this service then their contact details can be found on https://wiltshirebobbyvan.wordpress.com/referrals/  or by phoning 01380 861155.”