Aberdeenshire Council has issued its latest Trading Standards bulletin on doorstep crime and scams.

▪ Scammers continue to take advantage of people during the Covid 19 pandemic and are now resorting to issuing fake text messages to mobile phone users stating that they are eligible to apply for the Covid-19 vaccine.

A link is included, which once clicked on, takes the recipient to a genuine looking NHS website where they are asked to input banking and personal information. The information is subsequently used to access the recipients bank accounts and steal money from them.

The NHS will not ask you for payment or bank details if you are identified as someone eligible for vaccination. If you receive a text message like this, please ignore, block and delete it. https://www.eveningexpress.co.uk/fp/news/local/covid-scam-warning-north-easttrading-standards-teams-issue-alert-over-fake-nhs-covid-19-vaccine-texts/

▪ We have received reports of residents who have invested six figure sums of money with companies/ individuals believed to be operating investment scams.

Residents should be wary investing money with any individual or company that contacts them out of the blue by email, text or phone.

The Financial Conduct Authority operates a register at https://register.fca.org.uk/s/ where checks can be made regarding whether a company is regulated. If it is not registered, it may be a scammer you are engaging with.

▪ It is now 2021 and the transition period leading up to the UK’s exit from the European Union has now concluded, but what does that mean for consumers and consumer goods? Does Brexit change consumer rights?

Even though a lot of consumer rights are based on EU laws, most have been incorporated into UK law, so even though we have left the EU, your rights as a consumer remain the same, unless the UK decides to change them in the future but at the moment goods such as toys, PPE and electrical goods are subject to the same strict safety standards as before.

During 2021, the ‘CE’ mark which is currently affixed to these goods to show they are compliant will be replaced by a new ‘UKCA’ mark for Great Britain and a ‘UKNI’ mark for Northern Ireland goods.

Contact

For urgent Trading Standards matters, contact Aberdeenshire Council’s Trading Standards at 01467 537222. For non-urgent enquiries, please contact Consumer Advice Scotland at https://www.consumeradvice.scot/ or on 0808 164 6000.

Contact Police Scotland on 999 if you need urgent assistance or 101 for non-urgent matters.