Category: Guidance

Surrey Police Urge Security Updates

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Detective Sergeant, Dave Hull, from Surrey and Sussex Cyber Crime Unit said:

“We are working hard to prevent cybercrime in Surrey and we would urge all our residents and businesses to download the latest software updates from verified vendors to protect against viruses and hackers. Simple cyber security techniques such as this can make it extremely difficult for an attacker to obtain data or compromise systems. Software updates address security vulnerabilities and are designed to plug the gaps which hackers exploit to gain access”.

Cyber Streetwise urges people and businesses across Surrey to always download the latest software and app updates as soon as they are available. Software and app updates contain vital security upgrades which protect devices from viruses and hackers. They are the most important action people and businesses can take to protect themselves from cybercrime.

It only takes a few minutes to download software and app updates versus the time it can take to recover from a cyber hack. This is why it makes sense.

An estimated 2 million cybercrime offences were committed last year (according to ONS figures).

Advice from GCHQ’s cyber security arm, CESG recommends that software updates are the most effective action Britons can take to protect themselves online. However the majority of people in the South East don’t always download the latest software updates for their mobile phone (68%) or for their computer (64%), as soon as they are available.

To find out more, including how to set your device to that it automatically downloads the latest software updates visit https://www.cyberstreetwise.com/software-updates

Doorstep Cold Caller Warning Signs

Doorstep or cold calling is the act of making uninvited visits to your home with the intention of selling goods or services. It is not illegal and does not require a licence.
Door step cold caller sticker scheme.

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Are you fed up with receiving visits to your home from cold calling traders?

Are you concerned about rogue traders calling on your elderly or vulnerable neighbours, seeking work?

If so, say “no” to cold calling doorstep traders with a Trading Standards door sticker.

This sticker initiative is designed to empower residents, giving them the confidence to deal with cold calling traders. Traders should respect your wishes but if they don’t, they may be liable to prosecution for ignoring your request to leave and not return.

How do you get a sticker?

Sticker packs can be collected from your local district council, police station or library. If you have any trouble getting a sticker pack, please contact Trading Standards. You can find details of your nearest Trading Standards office by entering your postcode at https://www.gov.uk/find-local-trading-standards-office

Register your sticker

You can register your stickers online.

Registering your sticker pack enables the council to gauge their popularity and success at deterring cold callers  and identify neighbourhoods where stickers are not being displayed and attempt to increase take up in those areas.

Trading Standards Newsletter

Many Trading Standards offices publish regular newsletter including information on scams and rogue traders.

Check the online details for your nearest Trading Standards office.

Q. What should you do if my sticker is ignored?

Unfortunately, not all cold calling traders will respect your wishes and some will ignore your sticker. If this happens, try complaining to the company and ask them not to visit you again in the future.

Also send a copy of the letter to Trading Standards.

A Magic Phone Number and Call Blocking

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The Magic Phone Number
When buying something online or registering online there is usually a form to fill in of your details and quite often this insists on your telephone number even though you know it’s not needed.
This is annoying, plus, you wonder what they will do with your phone number. Will they sell it or give it to third parties?, resulting in phone calls you don’t want.

As the forms usually check the number is in the correct format, you need a real phone number to input.

You can use 0333 88 88 88 88 (the last 8 doesn’t matter if the form only allows 11 digits.)
When, they call, those cold call culprits will hear a short recorded message:-

“trueCall38 is handling my calls. I prefer not to be contacted by phone, so please contact me via my email address.  Goodbye!”
Problem solved.

Do companies block this number from being entered in the form?   No, but if they do then Trucall38 have a display page “Wall of Shame” but none has done so thus far.
Q. Why do companies ask for your phone number?
They rarely really need it, and you don’t know what they are going to do with it. Interestingly, experts say that asking for a phone number can reduce the number of people who complete an online form by 25%. That’s a big loss.

Of course, some companies sell their customers phone numbers on to other companies, so you don’t know who’ll get your number.
Call Blocking
The business behind the website trucall38.com have developed a call blocking device called Trucall that is reported to have been 95% successful in blocking nuisance calls. The technology has been licensed to BT and is incorporated in their BT8500 phone.
Trucall claim that half a million people in the UK are now protected from nuisance phone calls by their technology.

The guys behind Truecall say “We thought that everyone should have the opportunity to opt out of handing over their phone number unless they wanted to, so we launched the trueCall38 number – a completely free service”.
If you don’t want someone to have your phone number – tell them 0333 88 88 88 88

SEO Pay by Performance

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All businesses get endless emails offering SEO services.

SEO services is Search Engine Optimisation which just means tweaking your website to try to get a higher ranking on Google and other search engines.

At the radio station we get more than a hundred of these emails each month.

But the SEO people have a difficulty in that Google keep changing the rules for how they determine the ranking of a website and hence where it appears in the search engine results. Google do this to try to stop SEO people cheating the system. Google want the best websites to appear top of the list – not the ones that try to cheat the system.

A recent email from an American Online Marketing business says SEO is dead!

But they have a solution to that – you pay for results rather than the work involved.

At first sight, this might sound like a good deal – you only pay if they get your website high up on Google’s rankings.

But the devil is in the detail.

For example, suppose you sell sofas. If you type Buy a sofa in Google you get about 42 million results. To get to the top of that list on Google for the search phrase “buy a sofa” would cost a fortune.

But if you make your search phrase more specific then it gets easier.

Maybe your sofas are handmade and covered with leather. Now if you optimise your website to attract people searching for ‘buy a sofa handmade leather’ then Google only finds 500,000 results and that would still cost a lot to get to the top of that results set but hugely cheaper than the previous one.

And so on – the more detail in the phrases you’re trying to be the top result for – the easier and hence cheaper it becomes.

Ultimately you can find specific phrases where it is practical to get to the top of the list – but the more specific the search query the less people are going to make that search and hence the fewer actual customers you could possibly get from this.

But the point is that although the SEO business could find phrases that get you to the top of the results –  you’re unlikely to get much business from it – hence you pay them for nothing.

Can Someone Ransom Your Computer Files?

Ransom NoteYes they can. A malicious piece of software called ransomware can be unintentionally installed on your computer and hold you to ransom for access to your own files.

You may have clicked on a seemingly innocent email or website and the ransomware has downloaded to your computer. Then a screen appears with a message such as

“All of the files on this computer have been encrypted. You have 24 hours to submit payment to receive the encryption key, otherwise your files will be permanently destroyed.”

You can choose to pay, in the hope of getting access to your files but there is no guarantee. You can choose to ignore the threat or you can go to an IT expert for assessment.  Sometimes the message on screen is more threatening, such as

It may display what looks like an FBI page warning that you have committed an illegal act and must pay a fine or it may appear to a UK Police Force or some other authority. It is all fake of course as the FBI and other authorities do not practice blackmail.

To protect your computers against ransomware, make sure you have up to date anti-virus installed, take regular backups of all important documents and consider installing anti malware software.

Across the globe in 2014, there were 8.8 million ransomware attacks reported and this crime is rising rapidly.

For more information go to Ransomware: What is it?

Lead Generation Companies

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One big source of spam emails is lead generation companies.

These people are paid to create leads for a business to follow-up.

For example, suppose you have a new product – “pre paid funeral plans” was one that we received a lot of emails about recently.  You can try to find sales leads yourself or outsource to a specialist business that guarantees to find as many leads as you want. And it only charges per lead found.

Sounds a good deal.

Probably this works well sometimes, but often its more about the lead generation companies sending out vast amounts of emails or making huge numbers of cold calls. They don’t have a reputation with the public to bother about – so it doesn’t concern them if they annoy people or waste a lot of people’s time.  If they can provide leads then they make money.

This is why high pressure sales tactics are used.

If you’re in business and you’re going to use lead generation companies – do find out who they will contact and how. Also how they incentivise their staff and what rules they have to stop contacts being pressurised   into things they don’t really want.

Use lead generations companies with care !