January 5th 2021 Scammers are already busy sending out fake ‘HMRC’ texts following yesterday’s announcement of another national lockdown. Frauds exploiting people’s concern and confusion over COVID-19 began as soon as the pandemic hit, with numbers subsequently rocketing. The many themes have included fake test and trace calls to tax refunds, advertisements for non-existent PPE to vaccines, […]

December 22nd 2020 Very predictably, the launch of the staged mass vaccination of people in the UK against COVID-19, is being accompanied by a rash of attempts at fraud, as reported by Trading Standards departments around the country. Exploiting people’s desire to receive the vaccination as soon as possible and, more recently, increased fear of infection […]

November 20th 2020 The LEGO Group has today expanded its range of family-focused digital child safety and wellbeing initiatives to help families have conversations and learn more about how to tackle cyberbullying in an engaging, memorable way. A new ‘Build & Talk’ activity guide has been created to help parents and caregivers initiate conversations with […]

November 17th 2020 As HMRC issues thousands of SMS messages and emails as part of its annual Self Assessment tax return push, the department is warning customers completing their returns to take care to avoid being caught out by scammers. The annual tax return deadline is 31 January 2021. The department knows that fraudsters use […]

October 19th 2020 The Charity Commission is warning trustees and donors to strengthen their defences as it fears the pandemic has created environments that are enabling charity fraud. As we enter Charity Fraud Awareness Week (19 – 23 October 2020), charities have reported being victims of fraud or cybercrime 645 times since the start of the pandemic […]

Criminals exploit COVID-19 as fraud moves increasingly online

World Alzheimer’s Day: action on scams

Public reminded to ‘mullet over’

New warning about post-lockdown travel scams