People in Brighton and Hove are being targeted by sophisticated fraudsters trying to scam money by phone and email.
North Portslade councillor Peter Atkinson has been emailed twice in the past few weeks by con artists who have obtained his email address.
Councillor Atkinson said: “Many of you may have already been affected by one of these scams but they are becoming more and more commonplace.
“This is where you receive an email or a phone call, apparently from a reliable source, saying that there’s been a problem with a payment for something or an issue with a delivery of some goods.
“They then go on to ask for your bank details or ask for further payment – over the internet or via email.
“Some of the emails are laughably amateur. I had one allegedly from DPD, this morning, asking for payment for a redelivery. It just looked totally unconvincing.
“I had one a few weeks ago, however, in relation to vehicle (road) tax. It looked very ‘official’. It was very professionally put together and could have caught a person unawares.
“All of this suggests that these scammers either have people within many organisations feeding them our details – email addresses etc – or that their cyber security is not robust enough.
“Either way, it’s a worry and the main principle is never to give your financial details to anyone who emails you asking for them, not without ringing the company or organisation directly anyway and checking their veracity.
“I know this might sound really obvious but these scammers wouldn’t be doing what they are without getting some success with unsuspecting folk.”
Meanwhile the residents of Brighton and Hove will continued to get completely scammed by BHCC.
Couldn’t make it up.