Month: May 2015

Fraudsters often target ‘goods for sale’ adverts on popular online auctions sites, so watch out whenever you’re selling anything online.

How does the fraudster operate?

The fraudster will contact the seller to say that they want to buy the advertised item.
The seller then receives what looks like a genuine PayPal email, to confirm that the money has been paid by the buyer into their account.

With confirmation of payment, the seller will then send the item to the buyer’s address. The seller will later find that the PayPal email is fake and that the money has not been paid. The seller ends up losing out twice as not only do they not have the money, but they no longer have the item to sell.

Protect yourself:

• Check your PayPal account to ensure that the money has been paid in and has cleared into your bank account before you send the item to the buyer.
• Do not be bullied or rushed into sending items before you know that the payment has cleared – a genuine purchaser will not mind waiting a day or two for you to send them their item.
• If you are selling a vehicle, think carefully when selling to overseas purchasers – especially if they tell you they will send an extra payment for shipping – check that the funds have cleared before arranging this.

People nationwide are receiving cold calls and are being persuaded to invest in ‘Fine Art’.

Concerns around this include:
• How the commodity is being offered, such as how the cold callers persuade victims to part with their money.
• Hidden costs charged to the victims to view the product, shipping costs or additional fees to store the item.

How to protect yourself:

•  If the investment sounds too good to be true it probably is.
•  Hang-up on investment cold calls. Legitimate companies will not ring-up and offer you an investment out of the blue.
•  Do not give out personal financial information to cold callers
• Check whether the art dealer is a member of a trade association, such as The Society of London Art Dealers (SLAD), The Association of Art and Antique Dealers (LAPADA), The British Art Dealers Association (BADA) or Confederation of International Dealers in Art Work (CINOA).
•  Request copies of old receipts, invoices and question the history of the previous owner of the art investment, to check if the product is genuine before investing.

We’re proud to announce that the Shaftesbury and Gillingham Home Watch association are now on line.

We’d like to ask anyone who has a home or business in these areas to get online and check them out. They are a great source of security information and practical advice for keeping yourself and your property secure.

www.sgwha.org.uk

North Dorset Officers have been investigating a theft of a Landrover discovery car, taken sometime between 2200hrs yesterday 14052015 and 0500hrs today 15052015
This vehicle has been taken from the Silton area of Gillingham.

This does follow on from another Landrover theft from Todber, Sturminster Newton during the day on Tuesday 12052015.

Both vehicles have been the older style Landrovers.

Although these don’t appear to be linked crimes at this time, the safer neighbourhood teams would like to encourage owners of older vehicles to check the security of their vehicles and to consider purchasing after market security features such as steering wheel locks or other devices that are widely available.

Please find below information received from Dorset Police –

Cops in shops

Due to our ongoing commitments in relation to the general election we are rearranging our Cops in Shops and this will now be taking place on Thursday 14 May 2015.

This will be in the following areas and times:
Pimperne Post Office 10:30 – 11:00
Home Farm, Tarrant Gunville: 11:30 – 12:00
Iwerne Minster Post Office: 12:30 – 13:00
The White Horse, Stourpaine: 13:30 – 14:00
Okeford Fitzpaine Post Office: 14:30 – 15:00

Break-in to vehicle 6th May 2015

Officers are investigating a break to a vehicle on bank holiday Monday in the Bell Hill area of North Dorset.
This is an area off the Okeford Hill bridleway and we are enquiring if anyone was in this area on Monday around the hours of 1300 to 1500 hrs and saw anything suspicious.
A handbag was stolen from the vehicle and we are also using this opportunity to remind people to remove all valuables from your vehicle when you leave it for any amount of time.