Neighbourhood Watch – Well done everyone

Neighbourhood Watch Article

Well done to Balcombe!  We already had good social networking in the village, partly due various clubs and activities including the Neighbourhood Watch Scheme. 

Thanks to these community groups working together we have established ‘Balcombe Care’ which organises a daily pick up and delivery of prescriptions from Handcross Surgery for over 85 villagers who are unable to get out.  There are also over 100 Balcombe volunteers who have offered their time and energy to help with shopping, dog walking, gardening and other tasks which have become difficult for those called to self-isolate.

Sadly crime is still an issue for society with some are taking advantage of the current situation to target people with new SCAMS.  People are reporting emails which appear genuine with references to tax refunds, TV licence renewals, charities, special offers and even fines for breaking CoronaVirus19 lockdown rules,

Watch out for emails where ………

  • You don’t know the sender.
  • Contains misspellings (for example ‘p0rn’ with a zero) designed to fool spam filters.
  • Makes an offer that seems too good to be true.
  • The subject line and contents do not match.
  • Contains an urgent offer end date (for example “Buy now and get 50% off”).
  • Contains a request to forward an email to multiple people, and may offer money for doing so.
  • Contains a virus warning.
  • Contains attachments, which could include .exe files

To use email safely…………..

  • Do not open emails which you suspect as being scams.
  • Do not forward emails which you suspect as being scams.
  • Do not open attachments from unknown sources.
  • Do not readily click on links in emails from unknown sources. Instead, roll   your mouse pointer over the link to reveal its true destination, displayed in the bottom left corner of your screen. Beware if this is different from what is displayed in the text of the link from the email.
  • Do not respond to emails from unknown sources.
  • Do not make purchases or charity donations in response to spam email. 
  • If in doubt, contact the person or organisation the email claims to    have been sent by … better safe than sorry.
  • Don’t click on ‘remove’ or reply to unwanted email.
  • Check junk mail folders regularly in case a legitimate email gets through by mistake.
  • When sending emails to multiple recipients, list their addresses in the ‘BCC’ (blind copy) box instead of in the ‘To’ box. In this way, no recipient will see the names of the others, and if their addresses fall into the wrong hands there will be less chance of you or anybody else receiving spam emails.
  • Most Microsoft and other email clients come with spam filtering as standard. Ensure yours is switched on. 
  • When choosing a webmail account such as gmail, Hotmail and Yahoo! Mail, make sure you select one that includes spam filtering and that it remains switched on.

If you have lost money as a result of  fraudulent activity report it to Action Fraud, the UK’s national fraud reporting centre by calling 0300 123 20 40 or by visiting www.actionfraud.police.uk.

Hope this helps keep you safe.  Please remember that during these difficult times you are not alone.  If you need help then just ask – there are volunteers out there waiting for you to give them something to do!

Julie Mitchell

Balcombe Neighbourhood Watch Co-ordinator

01444 819262