False loans, credit cards and government refunds - there has been a recent rise in the number of scam phone calls or emails designed to extract personal details during the COVID-19 period. Workplaces are also being targeted by scams.
These include the use of spoof e-mail addresses designed to lure unsuspecting people in to believing that someone they know has genuinely contacted them.
There are controls and measures in place to block e-mails with thousands of e-mails are being blocked per day, and others going to junk. However, some will slip through the net as new e-mail addresses are being created every day.
The tell-tale signs to look for, when trying to see if it is a suspicious e-mail, are e-mail addresses that look the same as friends or colleagues, but may have a spelling mistake, or extra hyphen.
For example instead of joe.bloggs@hotmail.com it may come from Joe-Bloggs@hotmail.com – with the latter being the spoof e-mail.
As ever, if you were not expecting it or are suspicious of the e-mail, do not open it, simply delete the e-mail and then repeat that activity within the Deleted Items folder for that e-mail. Similarly if you receive a phone-call from someone telling you your phone has been hacked, please log the incident with the IT Service desk and block the number if you can.
There have also been report of emails to council addresses claiming to be from Cllr Dean Cohen, asking for 'a favour'.
Some of these ask for specific favours, such as to buy Amazon vouchers. These emails are fake, and the addresses have now been blocked.
While the system learns to distinguish the real and fake messages, it is possible that some genuine messages from Cllr Cohen may go into junk mail. If you are expecting any message from Cllr Cohen or work with him regularly please do keep an eye on your junk mail boxes.