Image (optional): 

Gloucestershire Constabulary are warning residents about a scam which promises the recipient a council tax refund.

The warning comes after Police received a report from an Ebley resident who had taken a phone call from a woman claiming to be from a claims court and promising her a £3,000 Council Tax refund. The refund was on the condition that she pays £90 for an information pack and gave her bank details so that the 'refund' could be paid to her.
The woman rightly didn’t supply any information and instead contacted the Police, who are warning recipients of similar unsolicited calls not to be taken in by the promise of large amounts of money.
The local council have confirmed that any legitimate form of council tax refund would be done free of charge and that the recipient would not be required to divulge bank details.
Police Crime Reduction Officer for the county, Paul Francis said, “Fraudsters and thieves are always thinking up new ideas on how to separate you from your hard-earned cash and this is just one example of the type of bogus phone call you might receive.

“Correspondence such as this can appear on the surface to be official but if something appears to be too good to be true, it very often is.

“We urge residents to always be on their guard when they receive unsolicited phone calls such as this and to not contact the company, supply any personal details and under no circumstances give out any bank account details.”

If you believe you have been a victim of fraud relating to a this or a similar letter please contact Gloucestershire Constabulary on 0845 090 1234 or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111 quoting incident number 232 of November 11.