8 June 2020: West Yorkshire Trading Standards weekly update on COVID-19 related scams.

The current pandemic has seen a huge increase in the need for PPE, particularly face masks across the world. Unfortunately fraudsters have been quick to react and bring to the market many products which don’t meet the stringent safety standards expected of them.

There are 3 different types of mask…

• PPE (Personal Protective Equipment) (May also have a valve fitted). Only masks designed to protect the wearer are PPE. These should be kept available for those in high risk medical environments and other roles where PPE is a necessity.
• ‘Surgical’/‘Medical’ masks designed to limit the transmission of infection. Mainly provides protection for others from the wearer. These are often used by medical staff and patients.
• General face coverings (including homemade masks and coverings). Intended to reduce the risk to the public but not the individual. These are for use by the general public.

How to spot a fake PPE mask:

• The mask or packaging should have the name and address in the EU of its manufacturer or importer.
• The ‘CE’ mark should be present alongside a 4 digit number this identifies who assessed the safety of the product.
• The mask or packaging should be marked with ‘EN 149:2001+A1:2009’
• The mask or packaging should state either ‘FFP2’ or ‘FFP3’. If products are only marked as ‘KN95’ or ‘N95’ without the above information they are unlikely to have had their safety correctly assessed.

Scams trending regionally in West Yorkshire and nationally

• Fraudsters have set up a fake website, impersonating the NHS website. The website contained numerous links that claimed to offer updates about COVID19. But clicking on the links prompted the user to download and save a file called COVID19.exe. This file contains information stealing malware.
• Action Fraud reports an increase in emails purporting to be from TV Licensing claiming that the recipient’s direct debit has failed and that they need to pay to avoid prosecution.
• An increase in reports of scam callers claiming to be from NHS Test and Trace service asking for payment details in order to purchase a test kit. Currently, coronavirus test kits are provided by the NHS, so they are therefore free of charge. NHS contact tracers will call you from 0300 013 5000 or send you a text message from ‘NHS’. NHS contact tracers will never ask you to make any form of payment or purchase a product of any kind and they won’t ask for details about your bank account. Contact tracers will not ask you to download any software to your PC or ask you to hand over control of your PC, smartphone or tablet to anyone else. Finally, they won’t ask you to call them back on a premium rate number (starting 09, or 087).

New mailbox to deal with reports of Covid-19 Scams in West Yorkshire: Covid19.Scams@wyjs.org.uk

Forward scam emails to report@phishing.gov.uk

Report complaints to Citizens Advice Consumer Helpline: 0808 223 1133

Report scams to Action Fraud: 0300 123 2040

It is still possible to make a Lasting Power of Attorney (LPA) while observing Government guidance on social distancing, self-isolating and shielding.

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Making a lasting power of attorney (LPA) is an important decision that you should think about carefully. An LPA needs to be signed and witnessed by several people. Once the LPA has been signed, you need to send it to the Government for registration. It may then be around 8 weeks before you get the registered LPA back and can start using it. This includes a 4 week waiting period required by law.

The Government are  working hard to continue registering LPAs and keep everyone doing the work safe. However, due to the impact of COVID-19 they say it might take longer than normal to register LPAs. Please continue to check their coronavirus response page for updates. You can still make an LPA during this time. There are other ways people can make decisions for you that are quicker to get in place. These may be useful while you’re waiting for an LPA to be registered or if you’re self-isolating and need someone to carry out bank transactions for you.

How do I make an LPA during the COVID-19 outbreak?

If you need to make an LPA now, you can still do so while observing government guidance on social distancing, self-isolating and shielding.

The guidance was updated in May 2020. Please check back regularly, for further updates.

You must read this guidance alongside the standard guidance on making an LPA.

This guidance is for people in England and Wales only. There is separate guidance for people in Scotland and Northern Ireland.

Signing and witnessing the LPA

Because of the current social distancing rules, you should not go into anyone else’s house to get them to sign the LPA or ask anyone to come into your house. Instead use other ways to get the LPA signed and witnessed.

For example, you can post the LPA to the people who need to sign it.

If they live within walking distance, you could take the LPA to the people who need to sign. However, you must:

• keep at least 2 metres away from each other at all times
• wash your hands before and after handling the LPA

Do not:

• use digital signatures – the document must be printed out and signed by hand with a black pen
• send people photocopies or scans of the LPA to sign – everyone must sign the same, original document
• ask people to send you a scan or photocopy of the page they’ve signed – we cannot register an LPA that includes scans or copied pages

Witnessing the donor and attorneys’ signatures

Someone must watch the donor signing the LPA, then sign it themselves to say they’ve witnessed the signature. Each attorney and replacement attorney’s signature must also be witnessed.

A neighbour can witness a signature, for example, on the doorstep or over the garden fence. Remember to keep at least 2 metres apart. A signature can also be witnessed through a closed window.

Someone the donor lives with can witness their signature, as long as that person:

• is aged 18 or over
• has mental capacity
• is not an attorney or replacement attorney on the LPA

Someone an attorney lives with can witness their signature, as long as that person:

• is aged 18 or over
• has mental capacity
• is not the donor on the LPA

If there’s more than 1 attorney and they live together, they can witness each other’s signatures.

Rules on witnessing

The witness must:

• be shown the blank signature and date box before they’re signed
• have a clear view of the person signing the LPA, so they can see the signature being made
• be shown the completed signature and date box immediately afterwards

Do not witness signatures over video calls, such as Skype or FaceTime. Signatures must be witnessed in person.

If the donor cannot sign the LPA

If the donor is not able to use a pen and cannot sign the LPA, someone else can sign on their behalf.

The donor and 2 other people must be there in person to witness the signature being made. The 2 witnesses must also sign the LPA.

All the rules on witnessing above apply.

Make sure the LPA is signed in the right order

It’s very important that the LPA is signed in the right order. If it’s not, we cannot register it. The donor may have to make a new LPA, get it signed again, and pay another application fee.

The certificate provider and donor conversation

The certificate provider must talk to the donor about the LPA to make sure the donor understands it and is not being pressured to make it.

Often this conversation happens face-to-face. At the moment you may want to think about using a phone or video call instead. The certificate provider should make sure the call is private.

Think carefully about who should be sent the registered LPA

When you make an LPA, you’ll be asked to say who will be the ‘correspondent’. This is the person we’ll send the registered LPA to.

If you think you might need to use the LPA very soon after it’s registered, think carefully about who should be the correspondent to make sure the person who needs it has access to it.

Organisations, such as banks and care homes, will want to see this original registered LPA when an attorney wants to make decisions on the donor’s behalf.

If you do not have access to a printer

You can ask a friend or family member to print the forms and post them to you.

You can also ask us to post you the LPA application forms. Our telephone number is: 0300 456 0300

How you can help the Government register your LPA as quickly as possible

• Use their online service to make the LPA and pay the application fee by card rather than cheque. 
• If the donor and attorney have email addresses, include them on the LPA form. This will make it much quicker if they need to be contacted
• Double check your forms before sending them in. Avoid common mistakes, by making sure:
  • the LPA is signed in the right order
  • you send all pages of the LPA, even those you have not needed to complete
  • you post the original document – scans or photocopies are not accepted
  • you carefully read the guidance on making LPAs

When you post your LPA to the Governement and when you’re waiting for the registered LPA to be posted back, please bear in mind that the postal service may be slower than usual. You can see service updates on the Royal Mail website.

West Yorkshire Trading Standards weekly update on COVID-19 related scams. What is happening at the moment in West Yorkshire?

Reports of a rogue trading company cold calling residents to say they’ve sent a letter stating they needed to ‘come and check if the air was fresh’ and ‘would install instruments to cleanse the air if not. They claimed pure air would prevent the coronavirus.

Reports of a doorstep caller in Kirklees targeting vulnerable residents who are socially isolated. Caller claimed he was from the Red Cross, he then said he was from Social Services and he was responding to a report that there was no food in the house. The male then entered the property following the householder into the kitchen. He was not invited
in. No food was brought, nor did he have identification of any kind.

Door to door mattress sellers reported in Brighouse, traders reported to be selling mattresses that may be unsafe for consumers and not meet fire safety regulations.

Reports of rogue traders operating in the Mirfield area offering gardening services to consumers. The traders are going door to door offering to do work for a certain price, this price then changes when work is completed.

We are receiving reports of fake PPE equipment being offered, and supplied in West Yorkshire. Claims are made that products meet specific safety standards, but often they have dubious supply chains, where

Investment scams on social media offering 8% return on purchasing student flats.

Phishing emails purporting to be from EasyJet offering compensation to customers who have had their holiday cancelled.

Phishing emails purporting to be from Amazon requesting customers update their delivery address.

Scam callers claiming to be from NHS Test and Trace service asking for personal banking information.

Report scams to Action Fraud: 0300 123 2040
Report complaints to Citizens Advice Consumer Helpline: 0808 223 1133
New mailbox to deal with reports of Covid-19 Scams in West Yorkshire: Covid19.Scams@wyjs.org.uk

What scams are trending at the moment in West Yorkshire? The weekly round-up from Yorkshire Trading Standards.

Here we have some really helpful guidance from Citizens Advice on reducing your energy bills.

Scams are on the rise due to the environment created by the coronavirus lockdown.

Calderdale Council has been made aware of fake emails being sent from addresses using the calderdale.gov.uk domain.

The emails being sent come from addresses ending ‘@calderdale.gov.uk’, and state that a PayPal transaction has been processed. These emails are part of a phishing scam and have nothing to do with the Council.

The Council will never ask for any personal details or payment information by email.

The best way to spot these emails is to look at the full address. The fake emails use a jumble of letters rather than a name or a department as the first part of the email address.

Anyone receiving an email of this type should delete it without clicking on any of the links.

The Leader of Calderdale Council, Cllr Tim Swift, said:

“Email scams of this type are called spoofing scams. This is a phishing tactic used by cyber criminals to trick users into thinking an email is being sent from a legitimate source. 

“We’d like to thank those customers who let us know about these emails, and make it clear that these have nothing to do with the Council.” 

Fraudsters have a range of tactics and you need to be aware of them and stay vigilant.  On Friday 20 March, City of London Police reported a 400% increase in scams as a result of coronavirus-related fraud.

You may have experienced some scams already, most common is emails sending you to other web sites known as phishing sites but there have also been reports of criminals knocking on front doors offering to go shopping for people who are self-isolating at home. Others are related to online shopping scams involving sought-after items like face masks and hand sanitizer.

So what should you look out for to avoid falling victim yourself?   Calderdale Council offers this advice:

• Reject offers that come out of the blue
• Beware adverts on social media channels if not from a trustworthy source
• Do not click on links or open emails from senders you don’t already know
• Be wary of deals that sound too good to be true
• Do not give out personal details
• Seek financial advice before changing any pension arrangements or making investments
• Do not draw attention to the fact that you are self-isolating alone.

The Which website has more advice and a video guide to avoiding scams.  Read more.