Crime: 11 January 2013

SOME GOOD NEWS – NO BURGLARY DWELLINGS IN THEN LAST 24 HOURS, ACROSS THE ENTIRE RBWM !

First, there have been some changes here in our Senior Management.  We have lost Acting Superintendant Dave Gilbert, who stepped in over a year ago, when Supt. Tim De Meyer was promoted to HQ.  He has now taken over as Area Commander for Bracknell.  We therefore have a new Area Commander – Supt Simon Bowden – Simon was the Area Commander for Bracknell.  He will be popping in to see me shortly and is already preparing a message, to introduce himself to you.  The number 2 was Acting Inspector Lee Townsend, who has now been confirmed in post – we are very happy to say. 

A happy new year to you all, from all our Neighbourhood Teams!  There has been yet another change.

As some of you may be aware, at the end of the last year, Thames Valley Police changed its local operations from small ‘Neighbourhoods’, to larger ‘Neighbourhood Clusters’.  In simple terms, this means that smaller Neighbourhoods were amalgamated, to form larger ‘Clusters’.  Maidenhead Town Centre, was ‘clustered’ with Riverside and Belmont, to form ‘Maidenhead Central’.  Bisham, Cookham, Hurley, The Walthams & Littlewick Green were ‘clustered’ with Pinkneys Green and Furze Platt, to form ‘Maidenhead West’.  Boyn Hill, Cox Green & Woodlands Park were ‘clustered’ with Oldfield & Bray to form ‘Maidenhead South’.  I have therefore moved the old Neighbourhoods into their new ‘Clusters’, but will still keep them separate for crime reporting purposes – I felt that was simpler.  This has been in effect for some time behind the scenes, to bed in the processes and it has now been officially launched.  The same level of service will be offered from your dedicated team, but across the clusters we will have an increase in visibility, with PCSO’s and PC’s from for example the old ‘Riverside & Belmont’, now also patrolling in ‘Maidenhead Town Centre’ and vice versa.

You will see below, the new email addresses for each cluster along with the new links to their ‘Neighbourhood Pages’ on TVPs website.  Please use this link.  You will find photos details of all the members of the team, dates of ‘Have Your say’ meetings, along with the Monthly Updates, setting out everything the team has done in the past month.

These are two entries from my Windsor message today – I felt they had aspects that would be useful for everyone; particularly the reference to the woman going door to door in Cog Green, this morning !

9/1 – 10/1  Wednesday 8 p.m. / Thursday 9.30 a.m.  Stanwell Road, Horton.  Car driver’s side front headlight smashed while it was parked up.  There has been a problem with youths in the area.  If I was the owner – I would think about getting a ‘guard cam’ from Amazon !  The security light, which contains an HDD camera !  It records every time the sensor is triggered – day and night.  The quality of the night time pictures is excellent, because of course once it is triggered the flood light comes on !!!  You can also record a warning message which plays every time the sensor is activated - or even....the sound of a huge dog barking, or perhaps a little Jack Russell ?????

10/1  Thursday 9 a.m. / 5 p.m.  High Street, Wraysbury.  Lock on the side gate to a house has been tampered with, but no entry gained.  There is no evidence that it was an attempted burglary, but can everyone be on their guard and report anyone walking about / going up and down driveways / looking in windows / trying side gates etc. to us, on the 101 number, please !  I have just heard a report over the police radio, phoned in by one of our members, about a woman in Cox Green going door to door, saying she is from the BBC and needs to come in, to check the TV signal strength and reception.  She may well be legitimate, but let us make that judgment – we have responded immediately and are carrying out an ‘area search’ for her, to have a word and make sure she is who she says she is – that is our job.  You will not be wasting our time.

CRIME:

MAIDENHEAD CENTRAL:

maidenheadcentralnhpt@thamesvalley.pnn.police.uk

Neighbourhood Page:

10/1  Thursday 9 a.m. / 10.30 a.m.  Melton Court.  Flat window smashed.

RIVERSIDE & BELMONT:

maidenheadcentralnhpt@thamesvalley.pnn.police.uk

9/1  Wednesday  8.30 p.m. / 9.30 p.m.  School, Gringer Hill.  Car passenger window smashed.  HANDBAG STOLEN FROM UNDER THE PASSENGER SEAT.  Bank cards from the bag, were used across Slough !

MAIDENHEAD WEST

BISHAM, COOKHAM, HURLEY, THE WALTHAMS, LITTLEWICK GREEN & KNOWL HILL:

maidenheadwestnhpt@thamesvalley.pnn.police.uk

Neighbourhood Page:

10/1 – 11/1  Thursday 5 p.m. / Friday 7.45 a.m.  Windmill Road, Cookham Rise.  Exhaust system and I presume the catalytic converter, stolen from under a Mercedes Sprinter Van – the van most often chosen by thieves.  If you have one, or know someone with one, they need to take extra precautions at this time.  This is the second converter stolen this week.

11/1  Friday Midnight / noon  Stone House Lane, Winter Hill, Cookham.  Attempted shed break - nothing stolen.  The owner reports the shed was entered 2 weeks ago and other neighbours have had their sheds broken into, BUT DID NOT BOTHER TO REPORT THEM TO THE POLICE !!!!!

PINKNEYS GREEN & FURZE PLATT:

maidenheadwestnhpt@thamesvalley.pnn.police.uk

NO CRIME TO REPORT !

MAIDENHEAD SOUTH

BOYN HILL, COX GREEN & WOODLANDS PARK :

maidenheadsouthnhpt@thamesvalley.pnn.police.uk

Neighbourhood Page:

3/1 – 9/1  White Paddock, Woodlands Park.  Several garage breaks – Hi Fi, games consoles X 2 and hand tools stolen from one, a wind up torch from another..

OLDFIELD & BRAY:

maidenheadsouthnhpt@thamesvalley.pnn.police.uk

10/1  Thursday 7.30 p.m. / 10 p.m.  Brayfield Road, Bray. Car rear driver’s window smashed – A BRIEFCASE WAS STOLEN FROM INSIDE THE CAR.  The thieves also tried to break into another car, but were disturbed by an employee of a local restaurant, who gave chase. 

MEMBERS COMMENTS:

FIRST:

Jeff,
Thanks for your email as always and happy new year.

Your point about the tax refund notification scam.  Did you cut and paste the text from another email ? It looks as though you may have sent a link to the scam website in your update. Using Microsoft Outlook, if you move the mouse pointer over the "CLICK HERE" part of your email, it shows that it is pointing to a website gamesrob.com.

If someone clicks on that link from your email they could be taken to that website. Hopefully, if they are unexpectedly prompted for personal information (like you would expect from a scam) they wouldn't enter it. But going to the offending website does give the chance of loading viruses and other nasty software onto your PC.

Kind Regards
Andy

Many thanks Andy – Please always remember to run your mouse over any link and it will show you where you will be taken – in this case to gamesrob.com – Just by it’s name, not the sort of place you would normally be going re a tax refund !!!

Hi Jeff,
I would like to alert people to what I suspect is a scam. On 2 occasions in the last 6 months we have been flagged down, once on the slip road to the M40 and once on the slip road to the M4 West, by a distressed looking man. Both times he was standing next to a car full of other adults. They are all of Romany appearance. He claims that his wife is ill / in labour in hospital in Ireland and that his car has run out of petrol and he needs money in order to get the ferry to Ireland. He offers all of his 'gold' jewelry in exchange for cash. We recently saw the same scam happening again on the Braywick road exit. We called 101 to report it.

Thanks,

Fiona

Another comes from Paul

It is from Barclays Bank – offering you millions of pounds – so obviously a scam !

I am Dr Edward James, Bill and Exchange Manager/ Secretary General, Head of the Private Banking Section Barclays Bank Plc Hammersmith branch London, we have set up to fight against scam and Fraudulent activities worldwide......................

Another scam sent to me by Paul, offering $2 million !  But you have to supply them with the following information by following a link:

Call Mr. John Omah now and ask him to give you MTCN and every other information you need to pick up your $5,000.00 today. Here is what he may require from you.

You’re Receiver Name.

Age

Etc.etc.

So a carrot and a link, plus a form of threat – do it today or possibly lose out !  Remember to roll your mouse over any link !

A word of warning from PCSO Michelle Walker about a phone scam that is so simple but could cost you a fortune:

This was recently in the Daily Mail online.

A 999 call and the credit card scam that cost me thousands:

How an utterly plausible con-trick, left someone £7,000 poorer and feeling a total mug.  It began with a phone call after dinner on a Friday night.  The victim’s wife answered the phone and the caller announced herself, as ‘DCI Jane Seymour, of the Serious Fraud Office’.

She was polite and matter of fact. She asked if she had been in a store on Regent Street that day, or the one in Covent Garden?  The wife replied that she hadn’t.  The inspector then broke the news that someone had cloned her cards and was using them to make major purchases. Panicked by this information, the victim’s wife called her husband over to the phone and asked him to speak to the police.  Does this mean identity theft, he asked ?  Yes, he was told, it could be. You’ll need to take part in a police investigation later, but first the police needed to block the cards, to prevent any more expenditure.  The husband became suspicious, but her next statement completely convinced him.  ‘Call 999 and check me out,’ she urged.  So they did.  They put the phone down, picked it up again and dialed 999. The dialing tone was normal, the phone rang and the response was as prompt and efficient as a law-abiding citizen could wish for.  ‘Yes, I’ll connect you.’ DCI Seymour then picked up the phone — her identity verified. In phishing parlance, they were hooked — and were about to be sunk.

‘We can have your cards blocked immediately,’ said DCI Seymour to reassure them. ‘New cards can be delivered to your house in three working days, or five for foreign cards. But first, we’ll need your PIN numbers.’ That should, of course, have rung alarm bells.  How many times has everyone been told, ‘Never, never give your PIN number to anyone, not even your bank will ever ask for it’ We hesitated — and this is where DCI Seymour scored again. ‘Don’t tell me the codes,’ she said. ‘Tap them into the phone and they will be sent straight to our technical team.’ 

And so, stupidly, but trusting that the digital wizardry was in their interest, they did.  As they later discovered, using specialist technology, she had recorded the numbers.  She went on to say that she would send a courier round to pick up the compromised cards, it all seemed so reasonable.  ‘Put them in a sealed envelope, inside another envelope, and don’t tell the driver what it’s for. We’ll contact him ourselves.’

Almost as if they had been hypnotized, they did as requested.  They were then told, the driver was on his way and would be with them shortly.’

Within minutes, as they later discovered, their accounts were already being plundered.  The DCI kept asking them to stay on the line, while she organised additional various protective measures.  They later realised that this was to prevent them ringing the banks ourselves, to cancel the cards. At around midnight, the wife collapsed into bed, but DCI Seymour kept the husband on the phone until 1.30am.

How does the scam work ???

It is an old one, used by con artists, whenever you need to verify their identity.

It all hinges on a clever technical trick.  If you are on the phone and put the receiver down, but the other party does not, you do not terminate / disconnect the call; they actually stay on the line.  This often happens accidentally, if the person on the other end, does not replace their receiver correctly.  Your line is blocked, until they do.  Usually after a minute or so, you hear a siren sounding from the phone, to remind you to replace it correctly.

Even if you dial a new number, you remain connected to the original caller.  So, when they dialed 999, it simply went back to ‘DCI Jane Seymour’ who was still on the line. She had an accomplice posing as the emergency services operator and, as easy as that, they fell into their trap

DON’T FALL FOR THIS.

In the past, we have had this here in RBWM ! You are burgled and the thief steals your purse / wallet and bank cards.  Subsequently they call you, purporting to be ‘the police’.  They say they have someone in custody, and have retrieved your handbag / wallet / purse, together with your bank cards.  Would you like them to cancel your cards immediately ?  To verify they are from the police they do exactly as the DCI did above.  You call back and are happy they are the police and hand over your PIN numbers.  WE NEVER DO THIS.  The responsibility to cancel debit / credit cards is yours and we never get involved,  We never ask for PIN numbers etc.

It is clever !!!