Scam of the week

You must be over 18 to buy fireworks. If you send your children to buy them and they are underage, you can be prosecuted.

2 If you buy fireworks for personal use, you are only allowed to use them on your private property or property where you have the consent of the landowner. 3 It is a criminal offence to let off fireworks in a public place without permission from the local authority. Councils can be very tough on those who breach it. 4 When you let off fireworks at home you will owe a duty of care to anyone in the vicinity and their property. If anyone gets injured by your fireworks you will be liable and can be sued. If you damage property belonging to another with your rockets, you have to pay for the damage.

5 Under the Firework Act 2003, if you break any of the laws relating to the use of fireworks at home, you can face a prison sentence of up to six months or a fine of up to £5,000.

TECHNOLOGY talk can be utterly baffling – and fraudsters have been taking advantage of this.

This week, I heard reports of people receiving calls claiming to be from BT to say they had run a security check and someone was using their IP address to engage in dodgy activities.

The victim is then offered a great deal – free enhanced online security .

The caller then passes the phone to someone he says is a “technician”, who gets the victim to install a programme called Team

Viewer on their computer.

It is a scam – it lets fraudsters access your computer remotely.