Police have received reports of fraudulent emails, phone callers and door-to-door scammers who are seeking funds.
Mission Australia urges people wishing to support communities in flood-affected Queensland to please go to qld.gov.au/floods/donate or call 1800 219 028 between 6am and 11pm.
Police are also asking people to be extremely cautious when taking phone calls from people claiming to be from consumer and government offices.
Unscrupulous individuals are reportedly calling residential addresses identifying themselves as a representative of a genuine banking institution or representatives of ‘bank reclaim expert’ companies.
According to Detective Superintendent Brian Hay, the scammers call the victim and get them to recite their personal details including their name, birthdate, address, phone number and the banking institution they are with to give the impression they are from a genuine institution.
There are also reports of bogus tradespeople demanding money up-front to clean or paint buildings affected by the floods or clear yards. After receiving payment, these “tradespeople” then disappear with no work being done.
Scams can be reported via the ‘report a scam’ page on SCAMwatch or by calling 1300 795 995.
Anyone with information that could assist police with their investigations should contact Crime Stoppers anonymously on 1800 333 000 or crimestoppers.com.au. Crime Stoppers is a 24-hour charitable community volunteer organisation working in partnership with the Queensland Police Service.
No comments:
Post a Comment