Online safety and avoiding scams
Stay safe online
As we do more and more things over the internet, online safety is a growing concern. Here is some guidance to help and simple steps to stay safe whilst making the most of being online.
- Age UK staying safe online - A great guide for anyone of any age who may be new to going online or wants to refresh their knowledge of online safety and security.
- Abilitynet IT support at home - AbilityNet provides a range of support to help disabled people get the most from their home computers, tablets and smartphones.
- How to protect your wireless router - Choose.co.uk outline the importance of protecting your wireless router.
Safeguarding children online
Get safe online is a website with lots' of information for parents and carers who are worried about their children being on the internet, below are a list of checklists to consider according to age groups.
Avoiding scams
There are some simple steps you can take to make sure you don’t lose money or personal details through a scam:
- Don’t ever give bank details, money or personal information to someone you don’t know. Hang up the phone, shut the door or delete the email.
- Legitimate organisations will never ask for your PIN, passwords or bank details.
- Don’t feel pressured. A genuine organisation will give you time to check credentials and consider what you want to do.
National campaigns
- Take Five (takefive-stopfraud.org.uk) is a national campaign offering straight-forward, impartial advice that helps prevent email, phone-based and online fraud - particularly where criminals impersonate trusted organisations.
- Stop! Think fraud (GOV.UK) is national campaign providing concise, simple-to-follow advice from leading counter fraud experts and signposting victims to relevant organisations for further advice and support.
Report it
- You can report scams and get more advice with Action Fraud, the National Fraud and Cyber Crime Reporting Centre
Trading Standards
There's more advice about rogue traders and cold callers from Trading Standards (Surrey County Council website) and you can sign up for their newsletter - TS Alert.
Contacting us online
You can save lots of time if you need to contact the council about things like a missed bin collection, a parking ticket or many other things by using our website instead of picking up the phone. Simply search for what you need to do on the top right of the screen.