Posts

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Family Holiday From Hell

One family’s dream holiday turned into a nightmare after they were forced to take a ride in the back of a police car.

Police had to step in and help one family who were left stranded when they turned up at the holiday apartment to find the gates locked. This was just the start of the problems the party of seven faced during their dream trip to Spain.

The family jetted off to Alcoceber in Spain and booked two apartments through Love Holidays. They arrived at their accommodation in the evening and not able to locate keys, or find anyone … Read more

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Woman Scammed out of £300,000 in romance fraud

A woman from Northern Ireland was targeted by a fraudster through Facebook, who conned her into a three year relationship.

 The victim, who wishes to remain anonymous, was lured into the relationship which started three years ago, but just three months in he started to ask for money from her.

It started with the romance fraudster asking her for money so he could send his children to England for a better education, but developed into him asking for money to invest in Ghana and Dubai. In total, she sent the man more than £300,000 which was deposited into different accounts … Read more

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Passenger Thrown Off Flight For Nut Allergy

A British holidaymaker claims he was thrown off a flight when he told cabin crew he suffered from a nut allergy.

Josh Silver from Essex was returning from a trip to Turkey with his girlfriend. He told the BBC how he was escorted off his flight back to Gatwick by Turkish police, after cabin crew staff told him it was against its policy to fly someone like him.

Mr Silver, who said he flew regularly for work, has a nut allergy which is not airborne. It only affects him if he consumes nuts. He said before leaving Gatwick he had … Read more

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Woman used by criminals in bank fraud case

A mother-of-two who acted as a mule for an organised crime gang has been spared jail after she admitted multiple frauds.

The 35 year old woman from Belfast, was described in court as a vulnerable woman with a heart condition picked on by fraudsters. Joanne Rice pleaded guilty to 14 counts of fraud by false representation over a six day period in 2016.

The M&S bank accounts that were owned by a separate customer had £85,500 transferred from it into what was described as a mule account, one of which belonged to Joanne Rice. In fact, over a six … Read more

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Mother and daughter warn others about ticket fraud.

A mother and daughter have shared their experiences of falling victim to ticket scammers in the hope that others think twice before buying tickets from unauthorised platforms. 

Sophie, 17, and Juliette, 49, gave their story as part of a new awareness campaign launched with Society of Ticket Agents and Retailers (STAR) that urges people to avoid fraud by taking more care when buying tickets for live events. Fraudsters will pose as a website or agent for a music concert or festival, a sporting contest, or a live comedian or performer, meaning victims will purchase tickets that either don’t arrive or … Read more

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Another Warning Over Booking Pilgrimage

Action Fraud is warning people to be careful when booking their pilgrimages.

Action Fraud, the reporting service, is warning anyone looking to book an upcoming pilgrimage to the Middle East, to exercise extreme caution as fraudsters are specifically targeting Hajj trips.

Up to 25,000 British Muslims will be booking trips to Mecca over the coming months to perform Hajj in the autumn.

The total reported loss to victims was £185,967 betw,,een July and December 2018. The public are urged to check that their travel company is a member of a recognised association such as ABTA

Last year, in the period … Read more

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Tenant Convicted over £40,000 Scam

In a landmark prosecution, a community homes tenant has been convicted for defrauding the council out of £40,000.

Adrian Pengilley, from Plymouth, originally applied to purchase his council home, under the right to buy scheme, but instead he illegally Sublette the property. He moved out of the property and rent it out, which is against the rules under the right to buy scheme. He had been a tenant of Plymouth Community Homes for 14 years and although the sale never went through, he could of benefitted just under £40,000 from the fraud.

Plymouth Community Homes said his actions led to … Read more

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Scam Victim Wants to Warn Others

Wendy Williams, was just one of over a thousand people targeted by the ‘Wolves of Wind Street’, a group of fraudsters who targeted elderly victims with a free boiler scam. Renewable Energy Centre Ltd, offered victims a free boiler under what they said was a government scheme, all people had to do was pay a one-off upfront fee of either £299 or £399.

The company managed to con 1,200 people into paying this fee, but only three households ever received their new boilers. The three elderly victims who did receive their new boiler, were actually unknowingly signed up for … Read more

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Virgin Media issues warning to customers over scam phone calls

An elderly man is warning people to be vigilant after he was targeted by scammers.

A man is warning customers to be vigilant after receiving numerous scam phone calls claiming to be from his telephone provider. John Brown, from Darlington, had been receiving missed calls and automated messages from ‘British Telecom’ stating his internet and broadband with Virgin Media would be cancelled.

The messages, which he received almost daily in the space of four weeks, told him he could remedy this by calling a certain number and pressing ‘one’ to speak to someone claiming to be tech support. Already suspicious, … Read more

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Stunned Parents told they can’t sit next to their 3 young children on flight

A family who went on a dream holiday to the US were told they couldn’t sit with their three young children, aged just 2, 4 and 6.

The family were stranded abroad after United Airlines refused to let the family sit together. Lois Herbert and her family took a trip of a lifetime to the US to celebrate her 30th birthday, but the trip came to a disastrous end when they arrived at Denver airport and were told something was wrong with their booking.

The family spared no expense on their £30,000 holiday, even upgrading the seven plane tickets… Read more

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