Online Safety.

- NEVER interact with anyone who contacts you that you are not expecting a call from. Simply say No Thank You and put the phone down. A common scam is that someone will call you declaring they represent Microsoft (or some similar organisation) and tell you there is a problem with your computer and they need to connect to your PC in order to fix it. Its a SCAM, put the phone down.

- Always keep your computer, tablets and phones operating systems and Anti-Virus software up-to-date. Ensure you download from official sites.

- Try not to use the same password for different sites/accounts. If you find remembering passwords difficult, try picking the first line of a favourite song (although maybe not Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen!) or book, removing spaces between words, and capitalising the first character of each word.

- NEVER give your Password or PIN number to anyone online. No Bank will ever ask you for it.

- Be careful if being asked for only part of your PIN number or password that you are not tricked into sharing more than you intended.

- Should you ever get a call on your land-line from anyone claiming to be an official (the Police or your bank for example) always ask for the callers name and tell them you will call them back. Replace the phone handset and wait a few seconds. At this point it might be worth calling a family member, friend or even your own mobile number (you don't have to answer it) - this ensures that the previous caller has hung up correctly and it is a REAL dialling tone you can hear as sometimes a fraudulent caller will simply play a tone that sounds like they have hung up, when in reality they just stay on the line. At that point look up the callers number, rather than simply calling the number they gave you. Should that NOT lead you to the person that called you, hang up and report it to 101.

- Always look for the little padlock in the address bar at the top of the screen when visiting any bank, building society etc. so you know that the web-site (and your information) is secure.

- NEVER EVER click on any link in an EMAIL or TEXT message sent to you, even if you THINK you know who its from. If you need to connect with your Bank, Building Society, HMRC or similar always type their address into your web browser yourself.

For instance, at first glance this text message appears to be from the DVLA, but if you look at the link carefully will see that the last few characters either side of the right-most full stop (underlined here in red) show that the web-site it will take you to is called SHR21.PW (the PW indicates this company is based in Peru!)


This type of message is known as "smishing".
- If you receive any scam emails from eBay, forward them to spoof@ebay.co.uk as they may contain vital information that could help investigators.

- Forward any suspicious text messages to 7726 and your provider will investigate.

- Advice on protecting your mobile phone from theft can be found on the Police.uk website HERE

- If ever you feel that your details have been compromised immediately call your bank on the phone number on your bank statement or the back of your debit or credit card and explain. Do not panic. Do not call any phone number sent in an email. Do it as soon as possible.

- Try and locate the use of a computer, laptop or tablet in a family friendly place - where it can be monitored from a distance. Children often want a computer or laptop/tablet in their bedroom but sadly this really isnt the best place for them to be when using it. There are lots of child un-friendly web-sites out there.

More helpful advice on keeping children of all ages safe online can be found on these websites:
InternetMatters.org
Net-Aware.org.uk
ChildNet.com