Protect your world campaign
Thames Valley Police have been running a Protect Your World campaign to inform and engage with the public and businesses in the Thames Valley about staying safe online.
It also encourages them to make a report if they fall victim. Visit the Thames Valley Police - Protect Your World website for more information.
You can also follow the Thames Valley Police Cyber and Fraud Twitter account for more practical advice.
Little Book of Cyber Scams
Thames Valley Police have joined up with the Metropolitan Police to produce the Little Book of Cyber Scams, to give information and advice to you and local businesses. While some of the information is targeted at businesses, the advice is relevant to all.
The booklet covers a wide range of cyber and cyber-enabled threats, including malware and ransomware, social engineering attacks - where cyber crime is made possible by someone gathering data deceitfully in person, by phone or email - denial of service attacks and data leakage.
It follows the production of the successful Little Book of Big Scams.
Christmas scammers
It may well be a season of goodwill, but sadly it’s also a season of phone and email scams. We want to make sure that you don’t fall victim.
The Council was recently told of a phone incident where a caller told the resident that they were from Oxford City Council and asked if they had had an accident, before requesting more information. After the recipient became suspicious and asked some difficult questions, the caller hung up. Of course it’s not just phone calls that you may need to be careful of. There have also been recent cases of scam emails surfacing. One that the Council was made aware of claimed to be from Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs offering a refund of Council Tax (HMRC has nothing to do with Council Tax collection).
These kinds of scams are typical at Christmas, but don’t let your guard down during the rest of the year as fraudsters can strike anytime.
You can also get advice from the police’s National Fraud and Cyber Crime Reporting Centre.
