This report from our Police Scotland Community Policing Team covers progress made in dealing with the priorities for the Braeside & Mannofield Community Council area during July 2021.
The report aims to highlight emerging issues in our area, and to provide crime prevention advice and guidance to residents . The focus is to reduce crime and disorder, help create safer communities and respond effectively to local concerns.
COVID 19 – UPDATE
As of Monday 19th July Aberdeen City moved into Level 0 of the 5 Covid-19 protection levels laid out by the Scottish Government. The Scottish Governments intention is for all remaining restrictions to be removed from the 9th August, but only if the data remains supportive and the restrictions in the levels remain necessary and proportionate.
Remember FACTS to help protect yourselves and others:
Officers continue to respond to reports of any breaches in the regulations using the 4E’s principle, namely Engage, Explain Encourage and Enforce as a last resort. Locally Police received no calls in relation to breaches in the regulations.
Community Policing Priorities
Antisocial behaviour, Violence and Disorder:
As we continue to enjoy a lovely summer we continue to see more people out and enjoying the sunshine, with the vast majority doing so respectfully.
On Tuesday 29th June, officers responded to a call concerning males acting suspiciously at an address on Morningside Road. The caller passed a good description and the registration mark of their vehicle. The males were traced and established to be workmen carrying out legitimate work.
During the day on Tuesday 6th July officers responded to a call on Braeside Avenue regards an elderly male acting erratically towards members of the public. He was traced and it was established to be a medical matter. He was conveyed to ARI and left in the care of medical professionals.
Acquisitive Crime:Officers are making enquiries into the theft of keys from an insecure property on Morningside Road that occurred late afternoon on Tuesday 29th June. Anyone with information is asked to contact Police on 101 quoting incident number 3007 of the 29th June.
We continue to encourage each of us to ensure we keep our properties secure at all times as above has been very opportunistic. It highlights the importance of keeping doors locked at all times, please do not leave valuables on open display or visible through car/house windows if at all possible.
Road Safety & Road Crime:
There have been no incidents of note over the reporting period.
We continue to work with partners in response to specific complaints in terms of road traffic offences. Residents in the areas affected by antisocial driving are encouraged to contact Police on 101 at the time, to report incidents and provide as much description as possible of the vehicle(s)/person(s) in order for us to take positive action.
Community Engagement & ReassuranceFrauds are an issue across the Country and as a Community we are no less susceptible to the risks and harms caused by these criminals. More information on what measures you can take to avoid becoming the victim of fraud, or what to do if you do become a victim can be found on the Police Scotland website.
https://www.scotland.police.uk/advice-and-information/scams-and-frauds/BE AWAREA new type of scam which we’ve just been alerted to involves adverts for theme parks, in particular Alton Towers, though Centre Parcs have also been targeted on Facebook by scammers where fake pages have been set up, spoofing the original companies’ pages and offering members of the public the chance to win breaks at these resorts by liking and commenting on posts, then clicking on the blue ‘sign up’ button at the top of the page.
Clicking this button takes the unwary visitor to another webpage where details of a ‘competition’ are laid out (the competitions are fake and no prizes exist).
Visitors are invited to provide their personal details and this is where the danger lies as these new webpages could track users to then target them with spam e-mails or smishing (scam) texts.
Another possibility is that the personal details provided are then collated and sold to other criminals on the dark net who then misuse the information to target or disadvantage the information holder via other scams or criminality.
Let me be clear; Alton Towers and Center Parcs have nothing to do with these pages, their images and information have been stolen and misused by scammers for their own gain.
Some ways to recognise the scam pages;
• Look at the top of the page, below the main image where the business name is. If there is not a small blue dot with a white tick in it, then this business has not been verified by Facebook and is possibly a fake. Verified businesses have the blue dot/white tick.
• Drill down into some of the comments being made by members of the public and look for comments about the page being a scam. If those comments are there, please heed them. Check the genuine company’s own website to see if the same competition is listed there. If not, it could be a scam.
• Check the date the page you’re looking at was created. If it’s recent, it could be a scam. The genuine Alton Towers page was created in 2007 and the genuine Center Parcs UK page was created in 2010.
• Does the competition website you’ve been re-directed to look real? Does it look as if it was professionally created, with a high standard of design and detail, with links which go to other pages? If not, it could be a scam.
If you come across any suspicious Facebook pages,
DO NOT enter your details on them
DO NOT share the page with friends.
Please also consider clicking on the grey box, with the three black dots, which sits just below and to the right of the business name. This will start the simple process of reporting your concerns to Facebook, to give them the opportunity to remove the page from their site.
Please note that the advice given in these bulletins has been deliberately kept simple, so that if you are faced with a scenario such as the ones discussed here where fear, panic and alarm are often tools used deliberately by scammers, you will know what to do at that time.
Remember, after the initial panic is over, you may have rights which Trading Standards can help you with.
