Fake motor finance compensation offers being made by scammers, FCA warns
The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) said it has received recent reports of scammers calling people and offering fake compensation in exchange for personal details such as their name, address, date of birth and bank information.
This follows the FCA's recent announcement of a potential car finance compensation scheme.
The regulator is reminding people that no compensation scheme is in place yet.
It said car finance lenders are not yet contacting customers about compensation.
People should hang up immediately if they receive such calls and avoid sharing any personal information, the regulator said.
Scam calls and texts should be reported by forwarding them to 7726.
In general, people should contact the police and their bank if they are worried they may have fallen for a scam.
Many banks have signed up to the simple-to-remember 159 phone number service, putting people through to their bank if they are worried about any suspect contact.
Nisha Arora, director of special projects at the FCA, said: 'We're aware of scammers calling people and posing as car finance lenders, offering fake compensation and asking for personal details. There is no compensation scheme in place yet. If anyone receives a call like this, hang up immediately and do not share any information.'
The FCA recently announced that it will consult on a compensation scheme.
Many motor finance firms were not complying with rules or the law by not providing customers with relevant information about commission paid by lenders to the car dealers who sold the loans, it said previously.
Nikhil Rathi, chief executive of the FCA, said previously: 'It will take time to establish a scheme but we hope to start getting people any money they are owed next year.'
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BBC News
23 minutes ago
- BBC News
Planned eyesight tests for drivers over 70 'don't go far enough'
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Daily Mail
an hour ago
- Daily Mail
JD Vance visits posh Cotswolds farm shop Daylesford Organic as his huge security convoy annoys locals after sending countryside into lockdown
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Lord Bamford's wife, Lady Carole, set up Daylesford Organic in 2002, with the shop previously hitting the headlines for charging £950 for a wicker-style blanket basket. JD Vance is believed to have stayed in the shop for around three hours and to have taken particular interest in the bread counter, where he was seen trying samples. JD Vance has been spotted visiting a farm shop dubbed one of the poshest in the UK after he arrived in the Cotswolds for a family holiday JD Vance's vehicles were spotted outside Daylesford Organic in the Cotswolds Vance was shown around by Tory 'super-donor' and billionaire digger boss Lord Antony Bamford One person posted on social media: 'Stopped off at a farm did JD Vance. Security everywhere.' Another added: 'JD Vance decided to go to Daylesford Farm [at] the same time as us.' Daylesford Organic, which is situated on 3,500 acres of farmland, is known for its upmarket goods. Items on sale when the Daily Mail visited in October last year included Swedish side tables priced at £3,500 each and a £6,950 burnt cedar wood 'kindled' bowl. Meanwhile, an influencer was also left baffled in March when she paid an eye-watering £37 for just four grocery items. Vance's visit to Daylesford Organic comes after his motorcade was seen passing through Chipping Norton this afternoon. All entrances to the hamlet of Dean - two roads and three public footpaths - were subsequently blocked off. Only residents of the hamlet were allowed in and out, dog walkers were diverted, and those entering the area were subject to searches. Today, one local councillor labelled the heavy security presence 'intimidating' and compared the sight of guards in suits and sunglasses patrolling quiet lanes to scenes from Men In Black. Vance was said to have shown particular interest in the bread counter where he tried samples The outside of the farm shop which is considered one of the poshest in the UK due to its high prices Vance's visit to Daylesford Organic comes after his motorcade was seen passing through Chipping Norton this afternoon Daylesford Organic, which is situated on 3,500 acres of farmland, is known for its upmarket goods 'We understand that people do need security but I think they haven't been discreet about it,' said councillor Andy Graham. 'I think that tends to generate more concern than is necessary. Roads have been closed up.' Mr Vance arrived in the Cotswolds today with his wife, Usha, and children - Ewan, eight, Vivek, five, and Mirabel, three - after the family drove up from London following a private tour of Hampton Court yesterday. Mr Vance rocked up at Henry VIII's former residence for a morning tour - forcing the site to delay its public opening to 12pm. He now appears to have finished his official business after making a brief trip on Friday to Chevening House, the official residence of British foreign secretary David Lammy. Mr Lammy, 53, and Mr Vance, 41, are understood to have forged an unlikely friendship and spent time with each other's families, alongside engaging in a short, bilateral meeting. The massive security operation surrounding Dean Manor has prompted its owner to apologise to neighbours for the disruption. Pippa Hornby, who bought the 18th-century Cotswolds home with her husband Johnny in 2017, told villagers that she was 'so sorry for the circus' set to take place across the coming days, The Telegraph reported. The manor house was built in 1702 for the MP Thomas Rowney and is close to Jeremy Clarkson's Diddly Squat farm. Set across six acres of land, the sprawling property is home to two cellars, a tennis court, rose garden, basement gym and Georgian orangery. There has been intense activity around the manor house for days. JD Vance's 18-vehicle motorcade passing through Chipping Norton this afternoon Police have closed off all roads and footpaths into the hamlet of Dean, where the US Vice President is staying with his family at Dean Manor, an 18th-century country house The vice presidential convoy making its way through Chipping Norton Officers are now checking the identity of residents trying to pass through the security cordon, watched on by dozens of Secret Service agents The motorcade is accompanied by motorcycle outriders to clear traffic On the main gateway of the property, leading to a sweeping 'in and out' driveway, two suited security guards have been checking the security clearance of those coming and going in a stream of blacked out cars and Mercedes limousine vans. Councillor Andy Graham, who has lived in the area for 11 years, questioned the use of police resources. 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But the security wouldn't let us past the blockade. We sort of looked and said can we drive down there and they said well you can if you are going to visit or somebody, because they have a lots of people. 'I said no actually we just wanted to go to one of the Cafes there and they said well no we can't let you through.' She added: 'I'm saddened in a way that the Cotswolds will be on the radar of Americans and particularly MAGA type Americans. A long-term Chadlington resident said the area had become 'pretentious' and 'chock-a-block' with outsiders. 'I have been here for 30 years, it's yet another come to the Cotswolds, it's all become a bit chock a block really,' she said. 'We are just all a bit fed up with it all. 'It's all become very pretentious. There's so much money around. It used to be a really nice working village. 'For local people it's a pain in the a***. Because people think it is somewhere to play and they go off and forget that it's actually a working village. 'The traffic is unbelievable. The road block is bad, just this morning coming down, my road the traffic was ridiculous. I was trying to reverse out and it was all blocked up. And it's so narrow here.' Mr Lammy, 53, and Mr Vance, 41, are understood to have forged an unlikely friendship and spent time with each other's families, alongside engaging in a short, bilateral meeting. Pictured: Mr Vance and Mr Lammy in Rome in May this year On the main gateway of the property, leading to a sweeping 'in and out' driveway, two suited security guards were checking the security clearance of those coming and going in a stream of blacked out cars and Mercedes limousine vans There has been intense activity around the manor house for days Another local said a large antennae placed behind the house, perhaps a telecoms tower, is 'humming constantly'. But one man seemed almost entirely unaware of the upcoming visit. When asked about Mr Vance, he remarked: 'Who? I'm unsure who that is.' As the Daily Mail reported last month, the tiny village of Charlbury - which is near Dean - is home to The Bull, named Britain's best pub in the National Pub of the Year at the National Pub and Bar Awards. Earlier this year, Charlbury was named as one of the best places to live in Oxfordshire, alongside the towns of Henley and Burford. Meanwhile, the wider Cotswolds have become the latest hot ticket with Americans seeking what they see as a traditional cosy English escape. Ellen DeGeneres, the US talk show host, is reportedly deliberately fleeing her home in the area ahead of Vance's arrival after leaving the US following Trump's election. Fashion journalist Plum Sykes told BBC Radio 4 last month of the cosy English haven: 'It's just so hot and so trendy and so fashionable. 'It's an incredibly beautiful area because it's being protected, almost like a national park that you can live in. 'Americans cannot get over the charm but since Covid it's been refashioned with all the pleasures of London, Paris and New York. Despite their differences in political opinions, Mr Lammy previously declared that he considers Mr Vance to be a 'friend' and someone who 'completely relates' to him. The pair are said to have bonded over their common backgrounds - both being raised without their fathers - and their religion: Mr Lammy is an Anglican; Mr Vance a baptised Catholic since 2019. Chevening (pictured), a 400-year-old Grade I listed mansion, has been the de-facto summer residence of the Foreign Secretary for decades, after being gifted to the UK in 1959 Mr Lammy previously declared that he considers Mr Vance to be a 'friend' and someone who 'completely relates' to him. The pair are said to have bonded over their common backgrounds - both being raised without their fathers - and their religion Ahead of Mr Vance's visit, which a source claimed would include a 'short bilateral meeting', the Foreign Office said ministerial engagements would be announced in 'the usual way'. In March, the Foreign Secretary and his wife Nicola Green visited the vice-president's official residence in Washington, the Naval Observatory, for a private meeting without officials. The Foreign Secretary told The Guardian earlier this month he and Mr Vance spent a 'wonderful hour and a half' together over drinks at the US Embassy in Italy during the inauguration of the new Pope, Leo XIV. It comes shortly after President Trump visited Scotland, spending time teeing off at his Turnberry golf course in Ayrshire in between holding diplomatic talks with the Prime Minister. Announcing plans for a protest, the Stop Trump Coalition alliance said: 'We are meeting Trump with protests in Aberdeen and Edinburgh this month, and then in London and Windsor in September. 'JD Vance is every bit as unwelcome in the UK as Donald Trump. We remember how Vance cut short his ski trip in Vermont because he was so enraged by the sight of a few protesters. 'We are sure that, even in the Cotswolds, he will find the resistance waiting.' Mr Vance has continued commenting on politics during his time in the UK, and said yesterday that the US was working to 'schedule' a meeting between Mr Trump and his Russian and Ukrainian counterparts. European leaders are frustrated at the decision to exclude President Zelensky from the upcoming US-Russia summit and fear it could lead to an agreement that is harmful to Ukrainian interests. 'One of the most important logjams is that Vladimir Putin said that he would never sit down with (Volodymyr) Zelensky, the head of Ukraine, and the president has now got that to change,' Vance said during an interview on Fox News program 'Sunday Morning Futures.' 'We're at a point now where we're trying to figure out, frankly, scheduling and things like that around when these three leaders could sit down and discuss an end to this conflict,' Vance said when asked about his expectations for the Alaska summit on August 15. In the USA, the Cotswolds has been dubbed 'the Hamptons of the UK' due to its popularity with the celebrity set Pictured: A small protest in Chevening ahead of Mr Vance's visit The vice president, in an interview conducted ahead of last week's announcement that the US and Russian presidents would meet this Friday, said the US was going to 'try to find some negotiated settlement that the Ukrainians and Russians can live with.' Vance added: 'It's not going to make anybody super happy, both the Russians and the Ukrainians probably at the end of the day are going to be unhappy with it.' US Ambassador to NATO Matthew Whitaker suggested on CNN that Zelensky could attend the summit. He was asked whether Zelensky might join Trump and Putin on Friday. 'Yes, I certainly think it's possible,' he said. 'Certainly, there can't be a deal that everybody that's involved in it doesn't agree to. And, I mean, obviously, it's a high priority to get this war to end.' In a flurry of diplomacy, Zelensky held calls with 13 counterparts over three days including Kyiv's main backers Germany, Britain and France. German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said Sunday he hoped and assumed that Zelensky would attend the summit. Whitaker said the decision would ultimately be Trump's to make. 'If he thinks that that is the best scenario to invite Zelensky, then he will do that,' he said, adding that 'no decision has been made to this point.'
The Independent
an hour ago
- The Independent
Two girls arrested after suspected arson attack destroys historic hotel
Two girls aged 13 and 14 have been arrested after a major fire gutted a historic former hotel. West Mercia Police said the teenagers had both been released on bail as part of its inquiry into damage caused to the Grade II-listed Raven Hotel in Droitwich Spa, Worcestershire. Hereford and Worcester Fire and Rescue Service said it responded swiftly to the fire at 4.45pm on Sunday, with the first fire engine arriving on scene within two minutes of the initial emergency call. The brigade said eight fire engines and multiple specialist vehicles were deployed to tackle the blaze, which did not lead to any casualties but 'totally destroyed' the building. In a statement issued on Monday, the West Mercia force said: 'Police attended a large fire at the Raven Hotel on St Andrews Street in Droitwich. 'It was believed the fire had been started deliberately but thankfully nobody has been injured. 'Two girls, 13 and 14, were arrested on suspicion of arson and have since been released on bail.' Officers remain at the scene, the force said, and are asking that the public stay away from the area at this time. Scaffolding was put up around the privately-owned building by Wychavon District Council after an incident in September 2024 where guttering and debris fell into the road. The incident also prompted an urgent inspection by the authority, which found that the condition of the disused structure, part of which dates back to the 16th century, posed risks to the public. Fire service Group Commander Simon Cusack said: 'This was a challenging incident, and I want to commend the professionalism and dedication of our firefighters and partner agencies. 'The rapid response and teamwork ensured that the fire was quickly contained and extinguished without injury. We appreciate the public's support and will continue to work with the local authority and business owner to secure the site.' The district council said it shared the community's upset and anger at the 'devastating' fire. The council said in a statement: 'We understand completely the strength of feeling and affection for this historic building and the significance it has for the town. 'Over the last six months we had been working hard to ensure that urgent works were carried out to protect the building in line with the court order we secured late last year. These works were due to finish this week and we will still invoice the owner for payment. 'We are working closely with the fire service and our building control officers were visiting the site this morning to review the building and advise of the next steps. 'We will issue a further statement very soon, once we have an update regarding the state and safety of the structure.'
