Local Community Scams:

1. Scammers have created a fake social media page called Isle of Wight Transport and have posted purporting to be Southern Vectis advertising that you can travel FREE for 3 months with a Smart Pass. This is a SCAM. Southern Vectis have confirmed that this is a scam and it has been happening all around the UK with local transport providers. If you engage with this a small payment will be taken from your account, this may be a test to check that it works and then a larger amount can be taken at a later date, or this will be a Phishing exercise, where your details will be taken now and used to purvey other scams in the future.

This looks very genuine and would appeal to so many of us (which is the scammers intention!) if you see something like this then go to the companies website as it will be on there too if its genuine.

You can report this to the social media site as a scam and hopefully they will take it down

If you have been a victim of this crime then we recommend that you contact the bank to cancel the card and make them aware, you can also report to Action Fraud on 0300 123 2040 or by using Reporting fraud and cyber crime | Action Fraud

Be wary when receiving emails, texts and messages. Remember, genuine organisations will never ask you to click on links in messages or ask for your bank details.

How to report

Scam texts can be forwarded to 7726Scam emails can be forwarded to report@phishing.gov.uk
When you report a suspicious email the automatic reply gives you some interesting statistics and shows how important it is to report scams. As of June 2024 – reports received – 32,897,230 with the removal of more than 184,500 scams across 337,672 URL’s

‘No cold calling’ stickers

‘No cold calling’ stickers are available by emailing trading.standards@iow.gov.uk.