Please find attached Kenilworth SNT’s Update for March 2020 which includes a message from the Chief Constable, Martin Jelley.

SNT Kenilworth Newsletter 2020 A

Kenilworth Watch, Warwickshire Police and Warwickshire County Council are jointly warning residents that fraudsters are taking advantage of the coronavirus (covid-19) pandemic to scam vulnerable people.

Since February 2020 there have been 21 reports of fraud where the Coronavirus was mentioned, with victim losses totalling over £800K. Ten of these reports were made by victims that attempted to purchase protective face masks from fraudulent sellers.

Some of the scam tactics have included: 

Sending out coronavirus-themed phishing emails in an attempt to trick people into opening malicious attachments or revealing sensitive personal and financial details.

ADVICE

DO NOT OPEN SUSPICIOUS EMAILS (however plausible they appear) AND DO NOT CLICK ON/OPEN ATTACHMENTS

Impersonating the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the World Health Organisation (WHO). Fraudsters claim to be able to provide the recipient with a list of coronavirus infected people in their area. In order to access this information, the victim needs to click on a link, which leads to a malicious website, or is asked to make a payment in Bitcoin.

ADVICE

DO NOT CLICK ON/OPEN ATTACHMENTS

Selling unapproved and falsely branded products, (for example teas and essential oils), claiming they can treat or prevent the Coronavirus. There are currently no approved vaccines or drugs available to prevent or treat the disease.

ADVICE

DO NOT BUY ANY SUCH PRODUCTS The NHS treat everyone in the UK at the point of need. If you are feeling unwell follow advice at https://www.nhs.uk or contact the NHS on 111

Creating malicious web pages with coronavirus based domain names. These encourage Internet users to visit them, putting their computers at risk of viruses. Some are attempting to mimic genuine sources of information.

ADVICE

AVOID PAGES ON THE INTERNET WITH CORONA BASED NAMES

Cold calling residents offering ‘safe’ investments following falling share prices.

ADVICE

DO NOT DEAL WITH DOORSTEP OR COLD CALLERS

Taking advantage of vulnerable older people who are attempting to self-isolate. This may include offering to fetch shopping or carry out all household chores in return for cash or for divulging bank details.

ADVICE

DO NOT HAND OVER CASH OR PROVIDE BANK DETAILS TO ANYONE YOU DON’T KNOW

A scheme to support members of the Kenilworth community through the Covid19 event is being put in place. We hope to circulate details of the scheme once the organisers have provided the details to us.

ADVICE

KENILWORTH WATCH WILL ADVISE OF THE SUPPORT SCHEME ONCE WE HAVE THE DETAILS

General Advice to residents:

Watch out for scam messages: Don’t click on the links or attachments in suspicious emails, and never respond to unsolicited messages and phone calls that ask for your personal or financial details. 

Shopping online: If you’re making a purchase from a company or person you don’t know and trust, carry out some research first, and ask a friend or family member for advice before completing the purchase. If you decide to go ahead with the purchase, use a credit card if you have one, as most major credit card providers insure online purchases. For more information on how to shop online safely, please visit: https://www.actionfraud.police.uk/shoponlinesafely 

Protect your devices from the latest threats: Always install the latest software and app updates to protect your devices from the latest threats. For information on how to update your devices, please visit: https://www.ncsc.gov.uk/guidance/securing-your-devices 

Keep up with all the latest help, advice and information at: https://www.warwickshire.gov.uk/coronavirus

Please be aware that between 1700hrs on Sunday 15 March and 1600hrs on Monday 16 March 2020 offenders have accessed the garden of a property at Brookside Avenue, Kenilworth through a side gate. The offenders have then smashed the rear door and entered the property. Once inside the property offenders have made an untidy search. It is not clear at this stage what items have been stolen.

This is incident 294 of 16 March 2020

If you think you may have seen or heard of anything suspicious or have any information about this incident then please contact Warwickshire Police on 101 or alternatively you can call Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111

Kenilworth Safer Neighbourhood Team are advising owners of all vans and commercial vehicles to take all reasonable steps to protect their vehicles from attack overnight while parked outside home addresses. 

The warning comes after a spate of attacks overnight between Monday 2 March and Tuesday 3 March 2020 across Kenilworth.

Three commercial vehicles (vans) have been broken into with the contents stolen.

One van was parked on a drive at Roseland Road, offenders stole the contents of the van being power and construction type tools.

This is incident 48 of 3 March 2020

A second van was broken into at Dudley Road between 21.30hrs on 2 March and 0630hrs on 3 March 2020. Offenders attacked and cut into the passenger side of the van and stole a range of power tools and cordless tools and cordless tool batteries.

This is incident 112 of 3 March 2020

At approximately 0220hrs on Tuesday 3 March 2020 offenders attacked a third van parked at Fishponds Road. The rear doors of the van were cut and a number of power and cordless tools were stolen.

This is incident 123 of 3 March 2020

If you think you may have seen or heard anything suspicious or have any information about these incidents then please contact Warwickshire Police on 101 or alternatively you can call Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111

We are celebrating this morning, it’s the first day of spring and the sun is shining (well it is at the time we are writing this) and let’s hope the rain takes a long break now for everyone’s sake!

Kenilworth Watch is also celebrating the fact that now over 900 residents across our community subscribe to our free crime alert/crime prevention emails that they receive the minute we put a post on our website. It’s been several years since we first started the website, which in the early days was the website for the Windy Arbour, Tulip Tree Avenue and Whitemoor Road “Crown Watch” Neighbourhood Watch scheme.

Recognising that technology was stealing a march on things the “Crown Watch” group disbanded and we decided to just maintain a website, that also had an automatic email facility, to keep residents informed of crime in and around their community, crime prevention advice and results arising prosecutions. Over the several years the number of people following our website has grown and we have now reached over 900 residents that are signed up to our immediate updates by email.

For those that are savvy with social media we are also on Twitter (@kenilworthwatch ) and have grown our followers on that too with now over 530 followers. The benefit of having so many people signed up enables us to keep the community informed of the latest events in and around Kenilworth they need to know about as well as receiving timely advice and information. While we are independent we work alongside and closely with Warwickshire Police and their Kenilworth Safer Neighbourhood Team so we can ensure things are as up to date as possible.

Earlier this year we launched a CCTV register for Kenilworth residents and within the space of just two months we have nearly 60 residents signed up! It’s a great facility that enables us to check with residents and potentially save our local police lots of time with investigations. We’d also like to thank Kenilworth Vibes on Facebook for all the support they have given, and continue to give us, with our posts. Lot’s more residents have subscribed as a result of seeing us on the Vibes site which does such a great job in communicating with the community.

So, we’d like to say thank you to all those that make up the 900+ that receive our updates, each one of you help make a difference by being vigilant and alert in our local community and above by caring about the place you live in. We have a great community in Kenilworth and we feel our subscribers are very much part of making that so.