‘Delete it straight away’: Christmas scam texts on the rise

If it smells like a rat, it’s probably a rat.

In the lead-up to Christmas, we’ve had a number of reports of scammers sending text messages to people posing as delivery companies.

I’ve had about four in the past two weeks.

The texts say something like “you’ve forgotten to pick up a package” or “there’s a package here for you”.

If you haven’t ordered anything and it all sounds a bit odd, do not click on any links in the message.

That link will have the capacity to access your phone and possibly your bank details.

Don’t click it, delete it straight away and report it to Scamwatch.

Don’t ever give your bank details away at all. If you’ve made an online purchase, contact the provider directly.

We know people love riding bikes in Geraldton, but we need to make it harder for crooks who want to steal them.

Bikes are an attractive piece of property. This week we had four bikes stolen in just one night.

When you’ve got some valuable bicycles, please put them in a shed. Or bring them into the house and keep them secure.

You can’t go wrong by jumping on Bikelinc, a free service where you can register the serial number of your bike on a police database.

If police find a bike and think it’s stolen, we’ll look on Bikelinc to find out who it belongs to and get it them as soon as we can.

If your bike is stolen and it’s not registered on Bikelinc and it hasn’t been well described to us, it’s pretty hard to tell where it came from.

For any parents out there concerned about antisocial behaviour on Marine Terrace, I’m going to have designated local police officers in the Marine Terrace area as the warmer weather comes along.

Given there are a more people in town over the summer holidays, there’s going to be an increased police presence.

If you’re worried about your kids heading into the CBD, make sure you keep in contact.

It’s about instilling some trust between the two of you.

If there are any concerns about gangs, I would advise people to walk away and call police straight away.