Gwent Centre of The Caravan Club
Centre News

 

WARNING Once again another "spate" of junk mail is being sent out under our title, gwentcentre.co.uk. Please note that any mail you receive that shows the addressee (anything)@gwentcentre.co.uk has not come from us. Anymail sent by our Site will always come from one of the following:- gwentcentre@aol.com or gwentnews@aol.com or my personal address chaskerwood@aol.com. These addresses are perfectly safe and cannot be "Hijacked". Please do NOT open any mail that comes from gwentcentre.co.uk it may contain unwelcome material at best or worse still a virus.

 

February Caravan Club magazine - Important Information

We have experienced a problem with the mailing of the February Magazine which should be arriving with you over the next few days.

Some of the magazines have been incorrectly addressed and are missing the first digit of the house number. We know many of you have been receiving your magazine but we know for some of you it may take a day or two longer.

If you receive your magazine with the wrong address can we ask that you do not email or call us to report to us as we do hold the correct address for you but can we ask that if you receive a magazine for another member in your area can you please send the magazine back to us and we will ensure it gets to the right place.

If by Wednesday 3rd February you have not received your magazine please send us an email to let us know stating your name and membership number and we will get one out to you as soon as we can.

emailcomms@caravanclub.co.uk

Did you know the magazine is published monthly on The Club website and we hold an archive of all magazines back to 2002? To read the latest magazine online please visit the website

Apologies for any inconvenience.

 

Thank You

Peter & Jan Stroud, would like to thank everyone for the Get well cards and good wishes, telephone calls,visits & flowers, received during Peter's recent stay in hospital and since his return home.

Peter is now I'm pleased to say is going along fine, both the Royal Gwent and Neville Hall are keeping a check on him. Thank you also for all for your concern at the Dinner Dance it was really appreciated.

Love Peter & Jan xx

 

Credit Card Scam - Beware

This one is pretty slick since they provide YOU with all the information, except the one piece they want. Note, the callers do not ask for your card number; they already have it. This information is worth reading.

By understanding how the VISA & MasterCard Telephone Credit Card Scam works, you'll be better prepared to protect yourself. The scam works like this:

Person calling says, "This is (name), and I'm calling from the Security and Fraud Department at VISA. My badge number is 12460. Your card has been flagged for an unusual purchase pattern, and I'm calling to verify.. This would be on your VISA card which was issued by (name of bank) did you purchase an Anti-Telemarketing Device for £497.99 from a Marketing company based in London ?"

When you say "No", the caller continues with, "Then we will be issuing a credit to your account. This is a company we have been watching and the charges range from £297 to £497, just under the £500 purchase pattern that flags most cards. Before your next statement, the credit will be sent to (gives you your address), is that correct?"

You say "yes". The caller continues - "I will be starting a fraud investigation. If you have any questions, you should call the 0800 number listed on the back of your card (0800-VISA) and ask for Security. You will need to refer to this Control Number. The caller then gives you a 6 digit number. "Do you need me to read it again?"

Here's the IMPORTANT part on how the scam works the caller then says, "I need to verify you are in possession of your card." He'll ask you to "turn your card over and look for some numbers." There are 7 numbers; the first 4 are part of your card number, the next 3 are the security numbers that verify you are the possessor of the card. These are the numbers you sometimes use to make Internet purchases to prove you have the card.

The caller will ask you to read the 3 numbers to him. After you tell the caller the 3 numbers, he'll say, "That is correct, I just needed to verify that the card has not been lost or stolen, and that you still have your card. Do you have any other questions?" After you say, "No," the caller then thanks you and states, "Don't hesitate to call back if you do", and hangs up.

You actually say very little, and they never ask for or tell you the Card number. But after we were called on Wednesday, we called back within 20 minutes to ask a question. Are we glad we did! The REAL VISA Security Department told us it was a scam and in the last 15 minutes a new purchase of £497.99 was charged to our card.

Long story - short - we made a real fraud report and closed the VISA account. VISA is reissuing us a new number. What the scammers want is the 3-digit PIN number on the back of the card.

Don't give it to them. Instead, tell them you'll call VISA or MasterCard directly for verification of their conversation. The real VISA told us that they will never ask for anything on the card as they already know the information since they issued the card! If you give the scammers your 3 Digit PIN Number, you think you're receiving a credit. However, by the time you get your statement you'll see charges for purchases you didn't make, and by then it's almost too late and/or more difficult to actually file a fraud report.

What makes this more remarkable is that on Thursday, I got a call from a "Jason Richardson of MasterCard" with a word-for-word repeat of the VISA scam. This time I didn't let him finish. I hung up! We filed a police report, as instructed by VISA.

The police said they are taking several of these reports daily! They also urged us to tell everybody we know that this scam is happening.

Please pass this on to all your family and friends. By informing each other, we protect each other

 

E-Mail Scam - Beware

Another day, another shameless scam lurking in your email inbox - and this one could leave you penniless.

In September a new wave of scams hit the UK, and the 'tax rebate scam' reached a record level. The HMRC warned it had reached epidemic levels, with 10,000 complaints received in one day alone.

So what is this scam, and how can we avoid falling foul of it? It arrives in your inbox as an email claiming to be from the tax authorities, HMRC, explaining you have a tax refund due. If you respond to the email it then goes on to ask for your bank account and personal details in order to repay the sum you are supposedly owned. Of course once the criminals have your details, they're not interested in depositing anything, they clean you out.

To add insult to injury you will also get added to a so-called 'sucker-list' which means scammers know you are vulnerable and will redouble their efforts to rip you off.

The emails come from websites which operate for just 20 minutes, which is long enough for email users to find them, but not long enough for them to be tracked down by the authorities. So, given the difficulties in catching them, how can we avoid them? The simple answer is to assume that all these emails are from criminals.

The HMRC has confirmed that it would never ever contact anyone about a refund by email - under any circumstances - so every single email you receive along these lines is a scam.

If you get one of these emails, the best advice is to report it to your email provider through the phishing alert and to delete the email without opening it. And if you are already wise to this kind of thing, it's worth passing the news on to friends and family.

The OFT found that 3.2 million people in the UK succumb to this kind of scam every year. The more we can spread this advice, the fewer people will fall for it, and better chance we have of making it pointless for the scammers to even bother trying.

 

Centre Flags

Do you fly flags from the "A" frame of your Caravan? Helen is trying to promote the sale of Gwent Centre Flags.

Flags will be of the same quality as the ones on sale at the West Wales Welsh National.

The background colour would be Green or Yellow (to be confirmed). They will be 0.9m x 0.6m in size & will have both the Gwent Centre Emblem & the caravan club emblem printed on them.

Costing depending on the amount we order – if we order 30 = £17.50, if we order 50 = £15.00.

If you are interested in this project please contact Helen (Clothing Sales)

 

 

Sports Training

Any Centre Member (Adults and Youth) interested in taking part in our proposed weekly Football/Netball training sessions are invited to contact Brian Jude on 07811 319932

 

 

Notice for the Guidance of Rally Officers

It has recently become common to offer strips of lottery tickets at say £1 a strip or say 6 for £5 as an incentive to buy more tickets. There are quite strict rules for running unlicensed lotteries/raffles.

The LAW for running these are:-

The price of every ticket must be the same to give all contributors an even chance for an even stake

Sale of tickets must be confined to Members

The promoter must be a Member of the Society and is only permitted to make deductions from the takings to pay for printing and stationery

The money raised can be used totally for prizes or divided between prizes and the Society Funds.

No advertisement may be exhibited except on the societies premises or where the Members work or reside (this includes the Rally Field)

Rally Officers should comply with the above to avoid the possibility of the Centre being heavily fined and banned from carrying out this activity, which is an important part of the Centres income.

Chas. Kerwood

Hon. Treasurer

 

Important Message

At a Divisional Meeting held on 26th April, 2008 advice was sought on the current situation as to provision of Fire Extinguishers on Centre Rallies.

Advice from the Caravan Club Health and Safety Executive was as follows:-

As we are neither Employees of the Caravan Club or an Employer, the Health and Safety at Work Act does not apply to Rallies.

We are not required to supply Fire Extinguishers on Rallies and if we opt to do so we leave ourselves open to action for any accident or incident that may occur in their use or misuse. Every intended user should also be given full training on the correct use of the equipment.

We were strongly advised to encourage our members to look to their own Safety and supply their own fire precautions (i.e. Extinguishers or a Bucket to be filled with sand or water on Site) and not to continue with the system we have in place.

A Centre Committee meeting was held on the 31st April and this subject was discussed. Whilst it is realised that this has been a controversial problem for some years it was now felt that it would be unwise to ignore the Caravan Club's final and firm advice.

It was felt that Committee Members and Rally Officers should not be left liable in the event of an accident or incident causing injury or damage.

The Committee unanimously voted to stop making Fire Extinguishers available on Gwent Rallies.

 

 

Use of £2 Rally Book Vouchers

(i.e. Vouchers issued free with Rally Books)

To clear up any confusion about the use of these vouchers we would like to clarify the position.

Club members who register with our Centre for the first time will be sent a current Rally Book and a £2 voucher free of charge

Rally books are then issued to Gwent Members who pay £2 and order the New Rally Book from the Secretary. The Rally Book will be issued with a £2 voucher for use as a deposit for any Rally during that current year thereby ensuring that Members who Rally during the year will receive the Rally Book FREE. Members may buy a second book if required but a second voucher will not be issued.

These vouchers cannot be used for any other reason (including purchases of next years's Rally Book, Socials, purchasing equipment etc) as they are a concession to encourage and thank Members who Rally.

Non Gwent Members can of course purchase a book but a voucher will not be issued.

Centre Members who opt not to purchase a Rally Book will be sent a list of Rallies and notification of next years AGM by the Secretary.

 

Thank you for registering with our Centre!

We would like to remind you how important it is to re-register with the Centre when the time comes for you to renew your membership with the Caravan Club as the number of registered Centre Members controls the amount of our grant from the Caravan Club.

We would also like to thank all the Members who remembered to do so last year

Membership of the Centre is FREE to you but benefits all of us.

Thanks for your past co-operation

Hon. Treasurer on behalf of your Committee.

 

This is also our newsletter page.

Do you have anything of interest or importance that you would like published?. Why not mail me and forward your news for our consideration?

Please keep in mind that the web is "open to all" and nothing will be published that in any way may compromise any person.

It is the Centre's policy that Names will only be used at the request of the named person. Addresses and telephone numbers will never be used on our web site except for adverts in the For Sale/Wanted page if you actually request this is done..

 

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