Criminals are telephoning FENSA registered installers claiming to be from the organisation, and asking for their bankcard details. They are claiming that this information is required so that FENSA can refund installers monies that it owes them. They tell installers that FENSA has sent out a letter about refunds and that they are following up on this letter.
FENSA says that it will never contact installers asking for their bank account or card information – and is not in the process of refunding monies to any registered businesses. FENSA has not sent out any letters about refunds.
If an installation company has been telephoned in this way, they should contact the police by dialling 101 and give the following crime number: NFRC151101236514. They should also report it to FENSA, which has reported this activity to Action Fraud.
The scammers appear to be using publicly available information from the FENSA website – company name, address and telephone number – to target installers.
FENSA has immediately emailed all registered businesses and posted a login message on the website to warn them of this problem and has also issued this warning via social media.
“We were informed by seven installers, on Wednesday 17 November, that they had been contacted by persons purporting to be from FENSA, and asked for their bank card details,” explained FENSA managing director Chris Mayne.
“In this day and age it seems to be one of the dangers of being a well known and prominent organisation. We have immediately emailed all installers to warn them of this criminal activity, and issued a warning at the point of log in on the FENSA website. We are now repeating this warning via social media and through the trade press.”
The Action Fraud website has a lot of information on how to protect your business from fraudsters: http://www.actionfraud.police.uk/small-businesses-know-your-business
If you have been contacted by these criminals please let FENSA know by email: enquiries@fensa.org.uk
