By Public warned over ‘cold and malicious’ scammers
As the local Covid contact tracing team start work tracing people who are close contacts of people who have had a positive Covid test, one Councillor is warning people to remain vigilant to fraudsters posing as contact tracers.
Councillor Ron Shepherd, portfolio holder for safer and stronger communities at North East Lincolnshire Council, said:
“We’ve seen lots of different scams being reported across the country during this pandemic, it’s really disheartening to see how cold and malicious fraudsters can be”.
“We recently launched our local contact tracing team, and they’ll soon be going out to knock on doors and speak to people who are close contacts of people who have had the virus”.
“The first thing people need to know is that our contact tracers will have official Council identification which they will produce”.
“They will never ask for any money, financial information, or ask you to click a link in an email or a text”.
“A real contact tracer will give you information about what you’ll need to do if you’ve been identified as a close contact”.
“They will not charge you for this, if you’re in doubt, say no and contact the Council”.
As always, if you are identified as a close contact of someone who has tested positive for the virus, you will be contacted by someone from the NHS contact tracing team.
If the NHS contact tracing team cannot get in touch with you, your details will be passed to local contact tracing teams who will try to get in touch by phone or by visiting your property.
When the team visit your property, they will leave a postcard if you are not in which will include details for people to call the team for advice, but you will never be asked to hand over any financial details to these teams.
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