Sussex Police are issuing warnings regarding a parcel delivery scam involving a company called Parcel Delivery Services (that name must have taken a while to come up with). Apparently the scam runs like this: PDS pop a note through your door saying that they tried to deliver a package to you with a number to ring to arrange re-delivery. But – shock, horror – there is no package and you are billed at £15 per minute on the phone line. Now firstly it is not possible to run a £15 per minute phone line and secondly the company’s £1.50 per minute lines were cut off and they were prosecuted and fined five years ago, as PhonepayPlus, the phone-paid services regulator, have been at pains to point out ever since.

This gaffe from PC Plod of Lewes Police comes after last year’s advice from a Brighton PCSO (printed in a less reputable community magazine) warning that hackers could take control of the SIM card in your mobile phone and make calls at your expense by getting you to type in a series of numbers into your phone – an outright hoax which started in America involving AT&T, and which has been circling the planet for the past 15 years. Nice to know that blind faith has overtaken evidence-based enquiry in our county’s police force. Oh, and children aren’t being kidnapped in ASDA car parks by Eastern European couples either – another old favourite.

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