Mayor vows to track down ‘fraudsters’ targeting Tower Hamlets residents in housing scam
Fraudsters are targeting residents in Tower Hamlets with a promise to help them move out of overcrowded properties.
Leaflets for “Tower Hamlets Overcrowding Aid” have been handed out in the borough, directing people to a website, www.towerhamletsoa.com.
The site, which has now been taken down, asked users to pay a £29.99 registration fee so they could then submit an application for new housing.
The website, which was littered with spelling mistakes, contained photos of real estates in the borough and used genuine council addresses in an effort to trick people into giving away their personal information.
Residents have reported that those distributing the flyers said they were acting on behalf of the council – a claim the local authority has strongly denied.
The council confirmed that its trading standards team has identified the alleged owner of the website and will be working with police to further pursue the matter.
Tower Hamlets’ mayor John Biggs said: “We will be working closely with the police to track down those responsible for this scam.
“Not only are these fraudsters seeking to fleece families out of money they cannot afford, they are raising the hopes of families already living in difficult circumstances.
“I urge residents to be vigilant and to warn others in their homes and neighbourhoods about this scam. Anyone who has received one of these scam leaflets should contact the council’s trading standards team.
“The council will do all it can to find those responsible and push for the strongest possible legal action to be taken against them.”
The council has warned residents to look out for the flyers and confirmed that it would never request payment for a housing application.
Local authority staff visiting people’s homes will also have full identification on them.
Anyone who has received one of the flyers is asked to contact the council’s trading standards team on 0207 364 5008 or email trading.standards@towerhamlets.gov.uk
First Question is:
Has he become a “new” Policeman then?
There are THOUSANDS of abuses taking place of the local Community via Tower Hamlets Council being way out of order and Biggs has the gall to make this insulting plug for himself?
When the Community demanded action over the Ian Mikardo School, Biggs refused to condemn racists and racism.
Biggs has then issued many excuses suggesting that he had no “power” to make the Ian Mikardo School to do anything!
That was not the first time Biggs made such an excuse.
When Poplar HARCA raised parking charges and local people protested, Biggs said he had no powers to do anything to get Poplar HARCA to stop harassing the local people via the hike in
parking charges.
Biggs comes across in your piece as if he has bigger sense of his capacity to make false and misleading statements and do so by being allowed to get away with that than he has any respect for the local Community’s ability to see through his crafty ways.
Biggs must quit floating in the fantasy that he is fooling the Community with his crafty scripted lines.
1713 Hrs GMT London Friday 26 August 2016