Neighbourhood Watch

Any messages received from Dorset Police regarding Neighbourhood Watch will be posted here as soon as we receive them.  Please check this page frequently in order to keep up to date with any alerts.  The button at the bottom of the screen will show Neighbourhood Watch in red if there are any active alerts.  Alerts will normally be deleted after 2 weeks.

If you see anything suspicious, contact the Police and also e-mail  the

Do you have any friends or neighbours who would like to be on the Neighbourhood Watch mailing list?  If so, please get them to email the ________________________________________________________________________________________________

Telephone Fraud
The following information has come to our attention :-
 
We have been advised of a telephone fraud currently in operation (this applies to home and/or work telephones - land lines and mobiles):
 
If you do receive one of these calls, upon answering the telephone, you will hear a recorded message congratulating you on winning an all expenses trip to an exotic location. You will then be asked to press 9 to hear further details. If you press 9 you will be connected to a premium rate line that costs approximately £20 per minute. Even if you disconnect immediately, it will remain connected for a minimum of 5 minutes, costing around £100. The final part of the call involves you being asked to key your postcode and house number (which has other serious consequences). After a further 2 minutes you will receive a message informing you that you are not one of the lucky winners. The total bill will be £260.
 
Since the calls are originating from outside the UK, BT and other telephone companies are left relatively powerless to act. The only safe solution is to HANG UP before the message prompts you to press 9; even safer is to HANG UP on any unsolicited 'free offer' call. This appears to be a variation on a theme, warnings have been sent previously regarding calls made by individuals claiming to be engineers conducting a test on the line and asking for 9, 0# and text messages similar to the routine described above. DO NOT DIAL 9 (OR 9,0# OR 0,9#) FOR ANYONE! BT has been contacted and confirmed the details as being true.
 
There is another, newer, scam operating on Mobile Phones.
 
A Missed Call comes up. The number is 0709 020 3840. The last four numbers may vary but certainly the first four numbers will remain the same. If you call this number back, you will be charged £50 per minute. People have complained about their phone bills, once they have realised the cost of the call but apparently this is completely legal. So beware, do not call back numbers beginning with 0709.
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Bank ATMs Converted to Steal IDs of Bank Customers

A team of organised criminals are installing equipment on legitimate bank ATMs in at least 2 regions to steal both the ATM card number and the PIN. The team sits nearby in a car receiving the information transmitted wirelessly over weekends and evenings from equipment they install on the front of the ATM (see photos). If you see an attachment like this, do not use the ATM and report it immediately to the bank.

The equipment used to capture your ATM card number and PIN is cleverly disguised to look like normal ATM equipment. A "skimmer" is mounted to the front of the normal ATM card slot that reads the ATM card number and transmits it to the criminals sitting in a nearby car.

At the same time, a wireless camera is disguised to look like a leaflet holder and is mounted in a position to view ATM PIN entries.

The thieves copy the cards and use the PIN numbers to withdraw thousands from many accounts in a very short time period directly from the bank ATM.

Equipment being installed on front of existing bank card slot.

The equipment as it appears installed over the normal ATM bank slot.

The PIN reading camera being installed on the ATM is housed in an innocent looking leaflet enclosure.

The camera shown installed and ready to capture PINs by looking down on the keypad as you enter your PIN.

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The following was received from a colleague of David Morris, who has passed it on to us:

Subject: WARNING: Internet Dialler ring premium rate numbers
 
I had a phone call at home today from my phone company querying 'high phone usage'.
 
The reason turns out to be a dialler on my PC that dials premium rate numbers. It doesn't appear as a virus (I use Sophos, and it's up to date), and it's got through my firewall (Zone Alarm, again up to date), so I've not traced how it got downloaded.
 
The symptoms are a different homepage, and my internet links being redirected to, shall we say, 'various' web sites.
 
My phone bill has gone up by £100 in 2 weeks after 5 of these calls, 2 of which are 13 minutes long, which is the max length of a premium rate number. These have each cost about £30.
 
Apparently this thing is very prolific at the minute, and it's been causing havoc in the last two weeks. The guy that rang me said that all he was doing at the minute was making similar phone calls.
 
I've been trying to remove it from my PC. It seems to have a dialler in my Windows directory, and a .reg file that updates my registry on startup. It also sets a startup command to run this .reg file.
 
Thought I would drop a mail round in case anyone has the same problem, and before phone bills get too big. Apparently it was on Watchdog the other night.
 
If this has happened to you, a company called ICSTIS can trace the number and make the company refund your money if it's caused by an unwanted dialler. Their number is apparently very busy, but it's 0800 500212. Web site is www.icstis.org.uk (if you can get there without being redirected!)

Note from Chris Shaw:

I use a program called Ad-aware 6.0 which locates and removes these so-called dialer viruses. It is free. You can also buy a version which stops them coming in.

"What is Ad-aware? Ad-aware is THE award winning, multi-trackware detection and removal utility (designed for Windows 98 / 98SE / ME / NT40 / 2000 / XP Home / XP Pro) that will comprehensively scan your memory, registry, hard, removable and optical drives for known Datamining, aggressive advertising, Parasites, Scumware, Keyloggers, selected traditional Trojans, Dialers, Malware, Browser hijackers, and tracking components. Ad-aware will provide you with the confidence to surf the Internet knowing that your privacy will remain intact. "

Get it from:

http://lavasoft.element5.com/software/adaware/

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Police frequently receive reports from worried residents in relation to silent phone calls.  The fear is that someone is just checking whether they
are out.  Police have investigated these calls in the past and there is nothing sinister to be concerned about.  It is usually companies that telephone-sell goods using multiple dialling, which phones 20 lines simultaneously, and as soon as one person answers, all the other phone lines are cut.  As mentioned in a previous Home Watch Newsletter, you can stop these unsolicited calls easily by registering with the Telephone Preference Service.  The number to stop these sales calls is 0845 070 0707.

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