| This week marks Black Friday, one of the nation’s most anticipated annual super-sale periods.
Although many a mega saving will be enjoyed by those with fast fingers, Bedfordshire Police are encouraging on and offline spenders to be diligent in order to avoid experiencing more than they bargained for.
As spending habits are expected to peak further in the lead up to the Christmas period, calls to action, education and reports of incidents concerning a plethora of fraud types remains a big priority for policing.
Bedfordshire Police’s Serious Fraud Investigation Unit (SFIU) is directing both gift-givers and recipients alike to report any suspicious activity with the hope of minimising the number of victims succumbing to any unusual and unfortunate calls to action.
Consisting of two sergeants and eight investigators across the north and south of the county, SFIU has been put together to maintain a consistent and streamlined approach to fraud investigations.
The SFIU is responsible for all serious and complex cases that require a dedicated or specialist resource in force and works closely with national and regional agencies like Action Fraud and the Eastern Region Special Operations Unit.
Speaking with Detective Sergeant Ann Ward about the evolution of fraud crime, she said:
“We know that methods of payment and purchasing habits are evolving daily, and the ease at which members of the public can request a service or buy an item can be swift too.
“Sadly, with that being said, ease and speed of access is often closely followed by people falling victim to criminality such as fraud, and a genuine moment of transactional trust could see hundreds or even sometimes thousands of pounds being stolen or illegally used.
“We want to implore the public to educate themselves about the types of fraud that regularly occur around this time of year, particularly online and cyber crimes.”
The implementation of the SFIU enables Bedfordshire Police to prevent and detect fraud offences in a much more targeted approach thereby increasing public confidence in how the force deals with this brazen and often highly innovative field of criminality.
“There are a number of resources, partner agencies, advice pathways and tips that you can consider for guidance,” said Bedfordshire Police Cyber Security Advisor, Alexandra Matcham:
- Strong Passwords consisting of three random words, numbers & special characters
- Enable Two Factor authentication on all accounts & devices
- Anything seeming urgent for money is most likely a scam – DISENGAGE
- Different passwords for each account you have
- Keep your social accounts private, do not share any personal information online which can feed social engineering.
Read more on how to detect, manage and subsequently, avoid fraud. |
