August 27, 2015 12.10 pm This story is over 103 months old

Warnings issued over Lincolnshire email and phone scams

Scam alert: Warnings have been issued by police and Lincolnshire County Council after residents reported an influx of email and telephone scams.
Photo: The Lincolnite

Warnings have been issued by police and Lincolnshire County Council after residents reported an influx of email and telephone scams.

An email scam, in which the sender claims to be from the Metropolitan Police, has been received by at least one person in the county.

In the email, the sender requests personal details and bank account information in order to pay a large cash prize.

The email is headed with Metropolitan Police – Total Policing, and appears to give full contact details of the central communications lead followed by ‘Alerted Sony Iprize Winner’.

The full email can be read on the force website here.

Lincolnshire Police are highlighting this as a scam. They are advising people not to respond and to report it to the national fraud reporting centre at www.actionfraud.police.uk or 0300 123 2040.

Detective Sergeant Ian Jarman of the Lincolnshire Police Economic Crime Unit said: “I would advise people that the police do not respond to any police e-mail that use ‘.co.uk’ ([email protected]) as its ending, because they are fake. The police and Action Fraud use the ending .police.uk for e-mail correspondence.

“Thankfully the Lincolnshire recipient was dubious of this message being sent to her, alerted the police and did not respond. The Metropolitan Police do not employ a ‘Duncan Rhodes’ but the fraudsters could use any name in similar messages.”

Lincolnshire County Council are also warning residents of a phone scam after people reported being contacted by someone claiming to be from their local council.

The caller says that they are ringing about an accident that happened last year. The scammers are using either Lincolnshire County or District Council contact phone numbers.

It’s not clear what they will do with any information gained. The council is advising that people do not give out any personal information.

One Lincoln resident told The Lincolnite: “I had a phone call on my landline from a man claiming to be from the City of Lincoln Council. When pressed for further details on an accident I was supposed to have had I was told I was wasting his time. It was obviously a scam.”

Anyone affected by this scam should contact Action Fraud on 0300 123 2040 or visit www.actionfraud.police.uk.