Advice on how to avoid scams

ANGUS Council is giving locals the chance to get up close to the equipment favoured by scammers and bogus callers, to better understand how to send them packing.

The council’s financial harm group is staging its first pop-up financial scam advice centre on Friday, at Forfar Town and County Hall, from 11am-2pm.

Experts from Police Scotland, Trading Standards and the council’s social work adult protection and welfare rights team will be on hand to provide advice, alongside bank staff and financial advisers.

There will also be a chance to examine devices such as card skimmers, which thieves fit to cash machines in order to clone cards and steal PIN numbers.

Mark Hodgkinson, Angus Health and Social Care Partnership’s adult protection and review officer, said he was “continually” being made aware of people becoming victims of scams online, over the phone and on their doorstep.

He added: “We want people to be fully aware of all the ways in which these scammers and criminals will try to get their hands on people’s cash and give them the knowledge and awareness to protect themselves and their hardearned cash.

“While it’s true to say that it’s the elderly and more vulnerable in our communities that can be targeted by these scams, no one is immune.

“Almost everyone will know of a friend or relative who has been caught out by a scam or highpressure salesman.”