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- Community News
- 20 December, 2024
We aim keep you up-to-date with news from the Met’s Cyber Crime Unit, local Police, Bromley Council and Action Fraud, among many others. Please forward to your members, friends and family.
BROMLEY NEIGHBOURHOOD WATCH ASSOCIATION
The Trustees of Bromley Neighbourhood Watch Association wish all its members a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
BROMLEY TRADING STANDARDS – ALERT!
Alert! updates are posted directly to the LBB Website. Please tell your family, friends, neighbours, colleagues, groups and members. To read the latest and receive Alert! direct, visit: https://www.bromley.gov.uk/trading-standards/trading-standards-alerts
BROMLEY CYBER CRIME SUMMARY – NOV 2024
Top 5 by Volume (number of reports) and type of Fraud:
Online Shopping and Auctions – 18 – £6,492
Advance Fee Frauds – 16 – £15,637
Hacking of Social Media – 25 – £0
Other Consumer non-Investment – 12 – £41,270
Cheque, Plastic Card & Online Banking – 8 – £18,275
SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL WARD PANEL
Neighbourhood Watch is a partnership where everyone comes together to make their communities safer. It involves Police, Local Authorities, other voluntary organisations and, above all, individuals who want to make their neighbourhoods better places to live. It aims to help people protect themselves and their properties and to reduce the fear of crime by means of improved home security, greater vigilance, reporting of suspicious incidents and by fostering a community spirit. It relies on unpaid volunteers at all levels of the organisation and is always looking for more volunteers to fill the many gaps, particularly at the local level. Bromley Neighbourhood Watch Association has around 600 Coordinators serving the local community. Our objectives are:
- to help prevent crime by improving security, increasing vigilance, creating and maintaining a caring community and reducing opportunities for crime by increasing crime prevention awareness;
- to assist Police in detecting crime by promoting effective communication and the prompt reporting of suspicious and criminal activity; and
- to reduce undue fear of crime by providing accurate information about risks and by promoting a sense of security and community spirit, particularly amongst the more vulnerable members of the community.
Neighbourhood Watch is, essentially, about watching out for your immediate neighbours, members of your “Watch”. For a wider view, why not consider joining your local Ward Panel, a group of community members and partner agencies that meets with a representative of the Police Safer Neighbourhoods Team (SNT) at least every 3 months to set local SNT, ward priorities and hold the SNT to account for issues affecting the community. The Panel feeds information and emerging issues directly to local officers, helping shape and deliver local priorities and inform supervisors.
Safer Neighbourhoods is a Met Police initiative, unconnected to Neighbourhood Watch but of equal, if not greater, importance. Any resident of the Ward is free to join their Ward Panel whether or not they are a member of Neighbourhood Watch. Anyone interested in joining their Panel, should first visit the Met Police website (https://www.met.police.uk/area/your-area/), type in their PostCode and check the option for “Meetings and Events”. Assuming one is scheduled, it should show the date, time and venue for the next Panel meeting. You do not need to be invited, just turn up on the day and introduce yourself. This is your opportunity to meet your SNT and find out what is happening across your Ward.
PAYMENT FRAUD – ADVICE FROM THE MET POLICE CYBER CRIME UNIT
Payment fraud is a specific type of fraud that targets businesses with the intention of having them transfer money to a bank account operated by the criminal. There are 2 main types of payment fraud, CEO and Mandate Fraud. Both are usually targeted at staff within a company’s accounts department and use spoofed sender email addresses (sometimes called Business Email Compromise). CEO fraud involves an email that claims to be from a senior member of staff within a company such as a CEO (Chief Executive Officer). The email will ask the receiver to make a payment or transfer funds for an ongoing or new business transaction. Often the payment request is marked as urgent and pressure is applied to the receiver to make the payment as soon as possible. Mandate fraud involves an email that appears to come from a known supplier. The email will request future payments for products or services are made to a new bank account and give a reason for the account change. In each instance, the new account will be under the control of the criminal and any funds paid into it will be lost.
If an email is received requesting a change of bank details on an account, or a one off payment, verify this by making direct contact with the organisation or person requesting the change. Ideally, call them on a number you already have. Failing that, double-check the email used. Do not use any contact details from the suspicious email. Don’t be pressured by any email or follow-up phone call as this may be the criminal. Always double-check. However, some criminals are wise to this and so will prep a victim in advance by contacting them a few days or weeks earlier to change any stored phone numbers or emails to their own. So, it’s a good idea to double-check any contact when a change of details occurs. Make sure you double-check via the original contact details.
REMEMBER – Don’t change bank details without double checking.
CAUTION – Sometimes, criminals will call in advance to fraudulently change contact numbers. Check when these change too.
THINK – Why does this payment have to be made?
