October 2020

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scams

Welcome

Welcome to our October edition of CAPASP News. Autumn has well and truly arrived but sadly the dip in temperature does nothing to discourage fraudsters. They're busy  plotting Christmas-themed fraud and committing scams on people affected by the continuing coronavirus pandemic (see our news about the latest scam targeting those seeking employment). So your role in raising awareness across your community continues to be absolutely vital - and enormously valued, thank you. 

This issue we also bring news of Friends Against Scams week and a 'FASathon' which present a great opportunity to get involved in some scams prevention in your community with very little effort. Just think what a huge positive impact that could have! Read on to find out more...


New scams guide

A new guide 'Are you or your loved ones being targeted by scams? Help to manage finances and avoid scams for people at risk and those who support them'  has been launched by the National Trading Standards Scams Team and the National Centre for Post Qualifying Social Work and Professional Practice at Bournemouth University, working in partnership with Lloyds Bank, Halifax and Bank of Scotland.

Are you and your loved ones... guide

The guide provides information to individuals and their loved ones to help protect them from scams. It suggests measures that can be put in place to help prevent criminals from making contact, such as the use of call blockers and the mail redirection service. It also provides information on managing finances to reduce the risk of scams, such as implementing a Lasting Power of Attorney. You can find the guide on our website here.


Local Council's Conference

Conference image

We are busy preparing for this year's Local Councils Conference which takes place on Friday 23rd October and which, for the first time, is taking place completely online. It's all very exciting and over 90 local councils have already signed up to take part!

If you are a Councillor or Clerk from a local council in Cambridgeshire or Peterborough you should have already received an invitation to the event but further information can be found here including the conference programme and registration form.

CAPASP are hosting a booth at the event so we look forward to seeing you there during the breaks/network sessions to chat about scams prevention and to provide some freebies for your goodie bag.

We're also looking forward to meeting some new faces who may be enticed to join the conference for the first time in its virtual format. We'd love to be able to share some feedback of your experiences of being a CAPASP supporter with prospective new supporters so please let us know what has worked well for you or what we could do better and we will use that feedback to help all supporters as best as we can.


Strong Passwords - What's it all about?

D'oh!

We all know that having a strong password is crucial to prevent unauthorised access to any online account. But in spite of this, breach analysis has found 23.2 million victim accounts worldwide used '123456' as their password! And, alongside 'qwerty', 'password' and 'password1', four other numbered sequences made the top 10 of breached passwords! D'oh!

(See the top 100,000 most breached passwords here).

So what makes a password 'strong'?

The National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) advises to use three random words to create a strong and memorable password e.g. kneepastahopscotch. By adding numbers and punctuation characters to your password this makes it stronger still e.g. kn33p4st4h0p5c0tch!

NCSC also advise the following to keep your online accounts secure:

  • Use a unique and separate password for your email.
  • Store your passwords somewhere safe: save to your browser or use a password manager.
  • Add extra security to important online accounts: turn on two-factor authentication.

For more useful advice and information visit Strong Password Generator.


Mystery Shopper Scam

The National Fraud Intelligence Bureau (NFIB) are warning of a ‘mystery shopper recruitment scam’ which has already claimed 35 victims in London who have lost over £51,000.

Fraudsters are using recruitment apps and websites to target job-seekers with cold-calls claiming to be an employee of a mobile phone network. The caller explains to the victim that they will need to take part in a “mystery shopper” test in order to pass the recruitment process.

The victim is instructed to visit one of the mobile network’s high street stores and take out a phone contract using their own personal and financial details. The caller assures the victim that the contract will be cancelled once the recruitment process is completed.

Once the victim has successfully taken out the contract, they are directed to drop-off points to deliver the phone and SIM card to a ‘colleague’ of the caller. The victim is reassured that the contract will be terminated.

In reality, victims will never hear from the suspects again and are left liable for the mobile phone contract they were convinced to purchase. Some victims are also asked to move the ‘employer’s’ money through their own bank accounts, putting them at risk of committing money laundering offences. Others find out that their personal details have been used to take out loans, for which they are also now liable.

Easy tips for jobseekers are:

  1. Don't include personal information such as your full address, date of birth or NI number on your CV or public profiles on recruitment sites.
  2. Verify that the employer/recruiter is who they say they are by contacting the employer using information from their official website or verified social media accounts

For more information about recruitment scams visit Safer Jobs.

New Supporters

We are delighted to welcome Cllr Adela Costello and Peterborough Neighbourhood Watch Association as new CAPASP supporters this month.

Cllr Adela Costello

Cllr Adela Costello

Cllr Costello is Cambridgeshire County Councillor for Ramsey and Bury division and is the Member Area Champion for Huntingdonshire. She is also Deputy Mayor for Ramsey Town Council.

Peterborough Neighbourhood Watch are a network of local schemes across Peterborough promoting increased public participation in the prevention and detection of crime and a reduction in the fear of crime.

I am sure you will join me in welcoming Cllr Costello and Peterborough Neighbourhood Watch and will agree that it's absolutely wonderful to have their support. Welcome and thank you!


FAS Week and 'FASathon'

In the September issue of CAPASP news we invited you to mark Friends Against Scams week in your diaries to celebrate four years of Friends Against Scams. We hope you're looking forward to the campaign, which runs from 19th - 23rd October, and raring to get involved.

We have a social media pack at the ready to make it easy to participate so please contact us if you'd like a copy. If you can't commit to sharing social media content throughout the whole week then please join the 'FASathon' Friends Against Scams marathon on Wednesday 21st October to encourage as many people as possible to participate in Friends Against Scams training. Remember to share the link to the Cambridgeshire url to show the National Scams Team we're playing our part in Cambridgeshire and Peterborough!


CAPASP on BBC Radio Cambridgeshire

Shona McKenzie

Shona McKenzie

Shona McKenzie, East Cambs Community Safety Partnership's representative for CAPASP, gave some great advice to Jeremy Sallis and his listeners about the latest scams and what to do about them. You can listen here from 2.25:45


Soham Community Radio

One of our wonderful supporters, Anwar Khan, recently approached us to ask if we could help him with some scams awareness audio files to play on Soham Community Radio.

Needless to say we thought this was a fantastic idea and immediately convened a meeting to discuss possible topics and next steps. We are excited to have come away from the meeting with a plan for a series of six audio files which we will be making available to other community and hospital radio stations and anyone else who wishes to use them too.

Slip into Slippers image

Virtual Meeting on Slip Into Slippers Day

During the meeting we were pleased to show our support for Age UK Cambridgeshire and Peterborough by wearing our slippers for their Slip Into Slippers campaign.


Appeal for case studies

Colleagues at South Cambridgeshire Community Safety Partnership are putting together a community engagement toolkit and would love to hear from you with examples of scams prevention successes you have been involved in where you really engaged your community. Please contact Linda Gallagher, Development Officer, with any examples you may have.


Contact:

against-scams@cambridgeshire.gov.uk