Next NHW Update meeting - Thursday 4 February 2016

The next Carseldine 6 NHW Update meeting will be held on Thursday 4th of February at the Craigslea State School P&C Building at 7.30 pm.

The P&C building is situated at the rear of the school.

Car parking - please use the western car park near the swimming pool. You can then walk through the covered play area to the last building on the left.

Guest Speaker will be Dr Anthony Lynham MP, State Member for Stafford, Minister for State Development and Minister for Natural Resources and Mines.

Dr Lynham has fitted us into his busy schedule so come along and meet informally with our local State Member of Parliament, ask him a question or two about matters which affect us regarding NHW and government initiatives generally.

Your support of Neighbourhood Watch is of vital importance to the safety and security of our neighbourhood.  Come along, meet your neighbours and share a social word or two.

We hope to see you there. All welcome!!!

Have a Happy and Safe Australia Day

We would like to wish all our residents and loved ones a safe and happy Australia Day.

With lots of people expected to be out and about public events, parks and beaches, the police have advised that all available resources will be deployed to ensure the 2016 Australia Day festivities are not adversely affected by incidents of public disorder or alcohol-fuelled violence.

A large visible policing presence is planned at public areas across the state tomorrow with officers targeting anti-social behaviour.

Commissioner Ian Stewart said police wanted everyone to have a safe and enjoyable day.

“We are asking Queenslanders to celebrate Australia Day in its intended spirit of tolerance and respect for others within our diverse society,” Commissioner Stewart said.

“However, there is no place for violence or anti-social behaviour in Queensland and officers will not tolerate it.

“We know all too well how aggressive situations can escalate quickly and the consequences can be fatal.”

Plain clothed officers, as well as officers from the mounted police unit, the dog squad and the Public Safety Response Team will assist officers in patrolling public spaces and licensed premises.

Commissioner Stewart said while there was no specific threat against any person or place in Queensland, the heightened security environment would mean a greater than usual police presence.

“There will be more police than usual out and about at festivities and public areas but people should not be deterred from going about their normal business and enjoying the public holiday,” he said.

“Police want to ensure families and friends can come together and celebrate Australia Day in a safe environment.

“Anyone planning on drinking is urged to be responsible and ensure they have planned their transport home,” Commissioner Stewart said.

Tips for a safe Australia Day:

• If you are drinking, don’t let your level of intoxication make you a perpetrator or a victim of crime.
• Do not consume alcohol in a public place – police can issue on the spot fines for this offence.

• Make appropriate transport plans – don’t drink and drive, risking your family and friends’ lives.

• Stay safe and watch your mates. If you find yourself in a threatening situation, walk away.

• Drive to the appropriate road conditions.

• If you find yourself in a threatening situation or see a crime in progress call triple zero.

• If you observe suspicious behaviour report it to police through Policelink on 131 444.

• If you have information that would assist in solving a crime call Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000 

(Source: MyPolice Queensland Police News)

Happy New Year!

We hope you enjoy your New Year celebrations.

Extra police will be on patrol tonight to help families and those attending public events to enjoy a safe and incident-free night.

Police advise that if you are intending to drink this evening, make sure you have plans in place for a safe return home. Use public transport, take a taxi or organize a ‘dry driver’.

If you are driving into the city tonight, please be aware that a significant number of roads will be closed for New Year’s events including in and around the vicinity of South Bank in Brisbane and Surfers Paradise. For a full list of road closures visit www.131940.qld.gov.au.

Thank you for your support of NHW this year, and we look forward to working with you to continue making our local community safe in 2016.

Happy New Year!

Stay safe on the roads this Christmas

 

With Christmas only one sleep away drivers are being urged to slow down and remain vigilant on the road following results from Phase Two of this year’s Christmas Road Safety Campaign.

Phase two commenced at 12.01am Wednesday, December 23 and concludes at 11.59pm on Sunday, January 3, 2016.

Road Policing Command Assistant Commissioner Mike Keating said police were concerned with the number of driver’s detected speeding. Among the results was a car detected driving at 166km in a 100km zone on the Carnarvon Hwy, Tingun. Another vehicle was caught driving at 134km in a 60km zone on the Bruce Hwy, Monkland.

Road Policing Command Assistant Commissioner Mike Keating said there is no excuse for speeding.

“Every time you exceed the speed limit you are increasing the risk of you, your passengers and other road users of being involved in a traffic crash which could result in serious injury or death.”

So far this year, 237 lives have been lost in traffic crashes in Queensland.

“Road safety is everyone’s responsibility and we want to make sure all Queenslanders arrive at their destination safe and sound.” Assistant Commissioner Keating said.

During the Christmas Holiday Period, Queensland Police will enforce high risk road user behaviour including the fatal five: speeding, fatigue, impaired driving (drink and drug), failure to wear a seat belt and distraction/inattention in a concerted effort to minimise road trauma.


 

(Source: MyPolice QPNS News)

Very clever credit card scam

In many cases, when you receive an email with some dire warning about a scam or a virus (that even Microsoft can’t fix), it pays to be sceptical. Especially if it also tells to forward it to everyone in your address book straight away to warn them. At best they are fake – a bit of mischief-making. At worst, they can have viruses embedded in them that will spread to everyone you send it to, or forward all your friends email addresses somewhere.

A couple of good websites to check the accuracy of these sorts of emails are www.snopes.com and www.hoax-slayer.com

Occasionally, these emails can have a basis of truth to them.

An example was received by one of our local residents last week. The wording of the email in full was as follows:

Very Clever Credit Card Scam!

Give this wide distribution.

This scam is actually very clever.

Just when you thought you'd heard it all.

Be very careful out there!

Beware of people bearing gifts.

The following is a recounting of the incident from the victim:

Wednesday a week ago, I had a phone call from someone saying that he was

from some outfit called: "Express Couriers,"(The name could be any courier

company) He asked if I was going to be home because there was a package for

me that required a signature .

The caller said that the delivery would arrive at my home in roughly an

hour. Sure enough, about an hour later, a uniformed delivery man turned up

with a beautiful basket of flowers and a bottle of wine. I was very

surprised since there was no special occasion or holiday, and I certainly

didn't expect anything like it. Intrigued, I inquired as to who the sender

was.

The courier replied, "I don't know, I'm only delivering the package."

Apparently, a card was being sent separately... (the card has never

arrived!) There was also a consignment note with the gift.

He then went on to explain that because the gift contained alcohol, there

was a $3.50 "delivery/ verification charge," providing proof that he had

actually delivered the package to an adult (of legal drinking age), and not

just left it on the doorstep where it could be stolen or taken by anyone,

especially a minor.

This sounded logical and I offered to pay him cash. He then said that the

delivery company required payment to be by credit or debit card only, so

that everything is properly accounted for, and this would help in keeping a

legal record of the transaction.

He added couriers don't carry cash to avoid loss or likely targets for

robbery.

My husband, who by this time was standing beside me, pulled out his credit

card, and 'John,' the "delivery man," asked him to swipe the card on a small

mobile card machine with a small screen and keypad. Frank, my husband, was

asked to enter his PIN number and a receipt was printed out. He was given a

copy of the transaction. He guy said everything was in order, and wished us

good day.

To our horrible surprise, between Thursday and the following Monday,  $4,000

had been charged/withdrawn from our credit/debit account at various ATM

machines.

Apparently the "mobile credit card machine," which the deliveryman carried

now had all the info necessary to create a "dummy"  card with all our card

details including the PIN number.

Upon finding out about the illegal transactions on our card, we immediately

notified the bank which issued us a new card, and our credit/debit  account

was closed.

We also personally went to the Police, where it was confirmed that it is

definitely a scam because several households had been similarly hit.

WARNING: Be wary of accepting any "surprise gift or package," which you

neither expected nor personally ordered, especially if it involves any  kind

of payment as a condition of receiving the gift or package. Also, never

accept anything if you do not personally know or there is no proper

identification of who the sender is.

Above all, the only time you should give out any personal credit/debit  card

information is when you yourself initiated the purchase or transaction!

PLEASE   Pass this on, it may just prevent someone else from being swindled.

A quick check of the Snopes and Hoax-slayer websites shows that while this incident probably didn’t happen “Wednesday a week ago” as the email states, it is based on real events that took place in Sydney back in 2008. A scam pretty much along these lines occurred over a couple of weeks in October/November 2008.

While the culprit was arrested and there don’t seem to be any records of something similar occurring again, the Sydney victims lost a total of over $30,000 in this scam.

So although there is no evidence that this particular scam happening recently, it is a reminder to ALWAYS be careful with your credit card details, especially when it involves something you didn’t order and was not expecting.

And, just sometimes, there is some truth on the internet. So be careful with your credit card details over this holiday period.

Warning - Scammers are operating locally

Recently someone in one of our neighbouring NHW groups received a Christmas Message from an overseas friend to open a document.

His suspicions were aroused as these friends normally sign off in both names and they usually send their Christmas Message with a card in the mail, so he sent them an E-mail to confirm it was them.

Their reply was it definitely was not them and please DO NOT OPEN THE DOCUMENT.

This is an example of MALWARE scammers who are out there this year. Sometime during the year they have accessed your friends address book and will send you a email with a Christmas Message document. When you open the document it will plant malware on your computer and now you may be held to ransom.

A northside resident has also reported receiving a fake bill from Telstra. On contacting Telstra they confirmed that the bill did not come from them and that the account number and the Bpay details were a SCAM. Without close observation the bill looks genuine. 

Once again be on the alert this festive season as the SCAMMERS appear to be working double time this year.

You can report scams by visiting the ACCC’s Scamwatch website.

(Thanks to Brian Jones and the Local Watch Out Team at Aspley Gardens Neighbourhood Watch Inc for this information)                

Beware of new scam involving fake Centrelink staff

Residents are warned of a new scam where people posing as Centrelink staff trick their victims into handing over personal and financial information as well as money.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) recently issued a warning advising that around 300 people have so far been contacted by someone imitating an officer from the Department of Human Services (DHS) or Centrelink over the past six months.

The victims, mostly pensioners, are told that the government owes them money and they can only receive it if they hand over their bank account details and a fee, along with their personal details to ‘verify their identity’. Some have been told that their Centrelink payments will be cut off if the information is not provided.

Pensioners are not only tricked into potentially handing over their money, but by giving their personal information they can also become a victim to identity theft.

At least four people are known to have lost a total of $3000 as a result of the scam.

ACCC Deputy Chair Delia Rickard has advised that Department of Human Services and Centrelink staff would never ask anyone to divulge this type of information over the phone.

"If you receive a phone call out of the blue from someone claiming to be from a government department and they claim that you are entitled to money, hang up," she said.

“If you have any doubts about the identity of any caller who claims to represent a business, organisation or government department, contact the body directly. Don’t rely on numbers, email addresses or websites provided by the caller — find them through an independent source such as a phone book or online search.”

"Never give your personal, credit card or online account details over the phone unless you made the call and the phone number came from a trusted source. If you think you have provided your account details to a scammer, contact your bank or financial institution immediately."

This is just one of numerous scams around at the moment. A similar scam involves people pretending to be from the Australian Tax Office phoning and telling their victims that they have outstanding taxes owing and if they do not pay it immediately they will be subject to a large fine and possible imprisonment. 

Queensland Police have advised that in the last month they have noticed a dramatic increase in not only the number of scams circulating, but also their sophisticated nature.

If you have received one of these calls, please report it to the ACCC on 1300 795 995 or visit the ACCC’s Scamwatch website.

(Based on articles in The Daily Telegraph and Your Life Choices and information provided by QPS)