Airdrie & Coatbridge Advertiser
TALKING POLITICS Nearly time to bow out after 18 years
Just before the Scottish Parliament’s February recess I met with the new organisation Consumer Advice Scotland to find out more about how residents in Lanarkshire can be protected from scams.
Despite the frequent scam warnings, it is still all too easy for people to fall victim to the very many complex and convincing scams carried out by professional criminals using clever and plausible tactics.
Hundreds of people in Lanarkshire, and Central Scotland- wide, fall victim to scams every year and many of these people will be vulnerable, elderly and lonely. Realising that you may have been the victim of a scam can be extremely upsetting and worrying.
Furthermore, whilst 53 per cent of people over the age of 65 have been targeted by scams, only five per cent of these scams are reported.
This is quite simply because people often feel embarrassed and foolish about being taken in by scammers. Consequently, they don’t want to reveal they have been the victim of a scam.
That’s why it is important to make absolutely clear that there is no shame whatsoever in being taken in and conned by scammers, especially as they continue to use increasingly sophisticated techniques to trick people.
Common scams include bogus callers offering services like landscape gardening or maintenance work to gain access to properties. If an uninvited trader does knock on your door and tells you that urgent work needs carried out, don’t take their word for it. Always get at least three quotes from trusted companies and look up reviews of the cold caller’s company online.
Scams can also be carried out by online marketplace traders selling fake goods and sending fake emails claiming to be from companies including Amazon, banks or government departments.
Remember, a genuine bank or organisation will never contact you out of the blue to ask for your pin number, full password or to move money to another account. If potential scams are reported to consumeradvice. scot, the organisation can work with Trading Standards and Police Scotland to raise awareness and prevent other people being scammed.
Finally, on a completely different subject, it seems this sixth session of the Scottish
Parliament has been constantly on an electiontype footing since 2016; there has been a referendum on leaving the EU, two general elections and now the Scottish Parliament elections are only 15 months away.
When I first became an MSP in 2003, and up until the 2016 Scottish Parliament election, I was the only Conservative representing the Central Scotland regional constituency, covering nine constituencies.
During most of this time there were no North Lanarkshire Conservative councillors. Now I have two Conservative parliamentary colleagues and there is an eight-strong North Lanarkshire Council Conservative group.
By the end of this session in 2021, I will have had the privilege of representing my Central Scotland constituents for 18 years and I thank you all for your support. However, at the end of last year I made the huge decision that, having achieved most of the things I set out to do, I would not seek re-election in 2021.
In doing so, I am re-assured that I leave my party’s representation both at local government and parliamentary level in a much better place. But in the meantime it’s business as usual.