An 80-year-old resident owed a substantial amount of money by the district council says he thought he was being scammed after the authority appeared to contact him through a caravan site.
The pensioner from Spalding, who wishes to remain anonymous, was surprised when he received a phone call form someone saying they were from South Holland District Council and he was owed a rebate on his Council Tax.
The person said it was because the council hadn’t factored in the death of his wife six years ago, and the money owed was backdated from then.
The pensioner tried to establish it wasn’t a scam call and on checking the number found it had come from a Kingfisher Caravan Park.
Now convinced it was a scam, he immediately rang the council who told him the call was real.
“I wanted to speak out as I was worried others might be owed a rebate, but not take the call seriously because it’s come from Kingfisher Caravan Park,” he said.
Kingfisher Caravan Park is a site in Ingoldmells near Skegness and owned by East Lindsey District Council, one of South Holland District Council’s partners as part of the South and East Lincolnshire Council Partnership.
The pensioner says he was told by a council staff member that it was an issue with the partnership’s phone service.
A spokesman from the council partnership told this newspaper it was the fault was due to the pensioner’s system.
The spokesman said: “It was a legitimate call that came from our customer contact team, via East Lindsey District Council’s main service desk number (01507 601111), and there appears to have been an issue with the Caller ID incorrectly auto-generating on Mr Cole’s phone.
“The service reported this to our phone service hosts and they have confirmed it’s not a known issue, and will be something caused from the recipient’s network or device rather than something on the council side.”
