Nottinghamshire County Council Trading Standards are warning people to beware of bogus telephone calls purporting to be from a solicitor.
Officers are issuing the warning as a report has been made by a Nottinghamshire resident stating that they have received a cold call in which a recorded message told them that they were being prosecuted and that they needed to press button “1” to contact their solicitor.
The resident realised the call was a scam and ended the call. From our experience we believe it is likely that had the resident followed the instruction to press button “1” they would have been drawn into a scam involving an attempt to extract money or personal/bank details from the resident.
Nottinghamshire County Council’s advice is not to answer any personal questions during cold calls and to end the call immediately.
Any information about a prosecution would in the first place come from the prosecuting authority in a written form. The information would not be conveyed through a recorded message from a phone call.
If bogus callers have given you information which may help trace them, please report it to Action Fraud on 0300 123 2040 or visit http://www.actionfraud.police.uk