By Tracy Moore, Neighbourhood Watch and Bill Cunningham, Scamwatch
Shepperton Neighbourhood Watch update
By Tracy Moore
Shepperton has seen an increase in car crime generally but especially in relay theft of Range Rovers and other high value vehicles with key-less entry. If you own such a car, be alert and take action to protect yourself from this possibility. Consider the following.
Disable keyless entry within the vehicle menu. You don’t need it and you can usually do it yourself. If not, ask a dealership.
Fit an aftermarket security system which will immobilise the vehicle and apply technology to prevent new keys being assigned to your car.
Have a car key signal blocker. These are devices, like pouches or boxes which act as a faraday cage. They hold your keys and create a protective barrier against devices used by thieves to scan the code emitted by your key fob.
Invest in a Crook Lock. This is placed across your steering wheel.
Its good practice to…..
Leave your car empty ensuring that no items are on show.
Ensure the vehicle is locked – 44% of cars are broken into via an unlocked door!
Scam Marshalls Needed!
By Bill Cunningham
We are looking for volunteer Scam Marshalls.
A Scam Marshal is a bit like any one of us really. With a desire to be useful in the com-munity and generally help people. Especially helping vulnerable people to avoid being a victim of scamming.
It has been very rewarding and fulfilling and self confidence boosting for many. After a few months SMs have reported feeling happi-er (94%) feeling safer (84%) and 98% had money saved. So worth considering maybe?
A Scam Marshal is any resident who has been targeted by a scam and wants to fight back and take a stand against scams. They do this by using their own experience to talk to others nearby and/or by sending any scam mail that they receive to the National Trading Stand-ards Scams Team. This can be used as evi-dence in future investigative and enforcement work and plays a huge role in helping to stop the scam mail altogether.
“Best thing about the scheme is knowing that something is being done about it [scam mail].” George “The amount of scam mail I receive has reduced from 20-30 letters a week to just 2-3 a week.” Betty “Since becoming a marshal I have saved roughly £3,000 and the amount of scam mail I receive has dramatical-ly reduced. “
The work Scam Marshals do is vital to help close down the criminal companies and indi-viduals behind scams. Research has shown that this scheme also helps to improve the well-being of Scam Marshals and therefore their local community. If you are attracted by the opportunity to fight back then visit www.FriendsAgainstScams.org.uk. Marshals get a monthly newsletter that will include monthly highlights, enforcement updates and sometimes special requests from our investi-gators. Exciting eh!