Argyll and Bute Council’s trading standards team is warning people about cold callers who may phone regarding green deal energy saving measures.

Residents across the council area have reported being called and asked for bank card details to pay for an assessment, with no indication being given about who might carry out the work or when.

The green deal is one of several schemes designed to help with the costs of making energy efficiency improvements to your home and works by the householder paying for the energy efficiency measures through several years of payback charges on their electricity bills.

These schemes are long-term investments which should be given careful consideration. If you decide to have a green deal assessment carried out on your home there is no need to pay for the assessment until it has been completed.

This will protect you from scammers who work by contacting people, taking payment for an assessment and then disappearing without any intention of doing the assessment.

Never to give out your bank account or card numbers, or other personal details, to someone who phones you up and asks for them.

Councillor David Kinniburgh, Policy Lead for Regulatory Services, said: ‘’The most important question people should ask themselves about unsolicited offers of this type is: ‘Do you feel happy about sharing your financial and personal details with someone you don’t know that has contacted you out of the blue?’ As always, if an offer seems too good to be true, it probably is. We would advise Argyll and Bute consumers to ignore calls like this and to contact the Citizens Advice Consumer Service.’’

You can phone the Citizens Advice Consumer Service on 03454 04 05 06 for advice and support.

For up to date information on the green deal scheme you can phone Home Energy Scotland on 0808 808 2282 or visit https://www.gov.uk/green-deal-energy-saving-measures

Further advice is also available from the Energy Saving Trust Scotland