Black Friday shoppers in Eastfield urged to avoid handing cyber criminals an early Christmas gift

In the run up to Black Friday and Cyber Monday, specialist officers from North Yorkshire Police’s Cybercrime Unit will be on hand to offer advice to members of the public at the ‘Beating the Squeeze’ event to be held at The Legacy, Eastfield Community Centre, from 12noon to 5pm on Friday 28 October.

Residents will be advised to remain vigilant towards possible scams and deals too good to be true.  This could include scammers setting up lookalike websites advertising products and deals, tricking people into handing over their financial and personal information and selling fake items with people hunting deals.

The event is jointly organised by Carers Plus Yorkshire and North Yorkshire Police Filey and Eastfield Neighbourhood Policing Teams’ Operation Cracker in collaboration with the Eastfield Community Association.

It is the second in a series of events giving residents the opportunity to enjoy a cup of tea as they meet some of the local groups, organisations and individuals in their area who can help them lead full, healthy, and independent lives on a budget.

 

Sergeant Dan Thompson, of Eastfield Police, said:

“Fraud, in any form, is a despicable and cowardly crime with often anonymous criminals targeting the most vulnerable people in our communities. We know these faceless crooks will take any opportunity to exploit any situation to their own nefarious advantage.

“We understand fraud continues to rise and want to take the opportunity to warn the public and businesses take a few steps to protect themselves and remain vigilant.

“Our advice is clear, and the public should be aware that a telephone call, email, or text may not be from the person or organisation it appears to come from. Never click on a link from an unsolicited email or text, and remember that banks, police, or other legitimate organisations will never ask you for personal banking information or ask you to move funds to a different account.

"With people spending more and more of their time in the cyber and digital space and the growth of the internet has seen otherwise traditional crimes, such as fraud, being carried out online. Our ambitious Cyber Strategy, published in September, sets a clear direction for how we will tackle the threat, risk and harm from digitally enabled crimes including fraud.”

 

Elizabeth McPherson, Chief Executive Officer, Carers Plus Yorkshire, said:

“The internet remains a challenging space for our clients. Whilst the pandemic helped many of us to pick up more IT skills, we can all still fall foul of some of the very clever tactics used by individuals and groups on the internet, over the phone or on social media.  Anything we can do to help raise awareness, or to make people think twice about clicking onto something they are not confident with, we want to be involved in!”

 

The 'Beating the Squeeze' event in Eastfield, organised by Carers Plus Yorkshire, Filey and Eastfield Neighbourhood Policing Team and Eastfield Community Association, will be run alongside Operation Cracker, a wide-ranging partnership drawing in support and expertise from different organisations including North Yorkshire Police, Carers Plus, North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service, Yorkshire Ambulance Service and Yorkshire Coast based businesses McCain Foods, Signs Express, McDonald’s and This is the Coast radio.