'Beware of online scammers' says Burnham councillor who has been targeted

Online fraudsters have tricked community members in Burnham out of hundreds of pounds in an email scam where they pretend to be the parish council chairman.

Parish councillor Marie Hammon is urging residents to pay careful attention to their emails after tricksters wrote to unsuspecting residents asking for several hundred pounds worth of iTunes vouchers.

The email address appears very similar to councillor Hammon’s with just a slight digit change so at first glance it appears to be from her account.

Pretending to be the councillor, the scammer says they are too busy to make an online purchase and asks the victim to buy the voucher on the councillor’s behalf.

The email includes a promise that the councillor will pay the unsuspecting victim back.

However, once the person has bought the voucher, they are then asked to provide the voucher’s special code to the scammer and the money is then stolen.

Cllr Hammon said “On one occasion I was bought several iTunes vouchers from a person who thought that I wanted £300 worth of vouchers (as I was too busy to buy them myself).

“The scammer used my parish email account, that is online for anyone to use, and changed something slightly – like a word or a number.

“They then wrote a ‘friendly’ email asking for people to buy them for me, as a favour to me. Thank goodness that person bought them from Sainsbury's who bought them back as it was a scam. The police were informed.”

Another community member was not so lucky and bought £250 worth of iTunes vouchers on the councillor’s behalf.

They then phoned the number on the scammer’s email to get the money back but inadvertently handed over the iTunes voucher number – allowing the scammer to steal £250 worth of vouchers.

Citizens Advice has a number of safety tips to recognise an email scam.

It warns people to be wary of scams where you are asked to purchase something in an unusual way and quotes iTunes vouchers as a prime example.

Scams can be reported by visiting www.actionfraud.police.uk.

You should also keep records of when scammers contact you and inform your bank immediately if you’re concerned.