Be aware of scams

The Society is occasionally contacted by our members or other organisations with information about possible ‘scams’.

If you are ever contacted by a third party and are unsure about their intentions then please contact the Society and we can check on your behalf – and advise everyone else as relevant.

We give a couple of examples below

1) One of our members has identified a potential 'scam' that we want to pass on to everyone:

"I was called by a man pretending to work within the Derbyshire Fire Service Press Office, offering me exclusive advertising space as a therapist in their quarterly magazine.

Unfortunately, I fell for this scam and gave them my money (which I did get them to refund) but because they had my website details and know I am a member of your society I just want to let you know so you could forewarn other members in your newsletter.

The company is Fire Style Magazine. They have a website and claim to be a sponsor for a Fire Service Charity, which both look fake. The company is based in Liverpool and they get one person to call you making the offer and then as soon as you put the phone down they get another person to call you and take your money by offering a 10% discount. I spoke to Derbyshire Fire Service and they confirmed they do not use this company and do not have anyone in their press department by the name of Peter Foster.

It appears this company is a scam and misleads people into believing they are being advertised to all Fire Service employees and veterans.

(If you google the company you will see forums that claim it to be a scam)"

2) The Professional Standards Authority has shared the following message with all relevant Accredited Registers:

"My husband Richard an accredited therapist, was recently contacted by email, from an overseas client whose (supposed) daughter was coming to the UK and wanted 6 sessions of therapy. He then emailed to say that a cheque had been issued by a friend who had overpaid the amount which the therapist had stated were his fees, so could we please send on the extra money to his daughter which was meant to cover some of her school fees. When my husband told me this my alarm bells rang out and I said, no way can we under any circumstances use our banking to potentially launder their money. Fortunately the cheque which he said was in the post, never arrived and neither did the daughter.

However as the therapist shared this in his supervision group, 2 other members of the group had experienced a similar situation, all recently, this summer, and one had even received a cheque for the therapist sessions in the post. However instead of paying for the £200 worth of therapy sessions, the cheque was made out for £2000. He tried going to the police and the bank but neither could shed any light. But his bank has offered to return the cheque to the overseas bank asking if the cheque is fraudulent.