Peterborough care home holds scam awareness eye-opening event
Hampton Grove Care Home in Peterborough were delighted to have Rachel Elding from the Cambridgeshire Constabulary visiting to deliver super important chat about staying safe from scammers.
Rachel gave useful information on how to spot scams on landlines, mobile phones, apps, and emails. She taught the visitors, residents and staff the ABCD and Take 5 method, which is all about staying calm and not letting anyone pressure you. Rachel shared if you get an unexpected call or message, just take a breath and check it out first. You can always ask a trusted friend, call your bank on a number you know is safe, or pop into your local branch to be sure.
Rachel provided some stats that absolutely blew the audience away. Did you know that only 17% of people actually report scams? Plus, about 45% of all reported crime is cybercrime, but less than 2% of these scammers get caught. It was even more shocking to hear that people in Cambridgeshire lose a massive £2 million to these criminals every single month!
Rachel gave some great tools to help us fight back, and even some doorstep stickers to keep cold callers away. She reminded everyone that if you spot a scam, you can call 159 to get straight through to your bank. You can also forward dodgy texts to 7726 or email scam messages to [email protected].
Hampton Grove Care Home residents, staff, and visitors had a lot to say and shared their own annoying experiences with daily scam calls and messages. The best part was that everyone already knew the golden rule, which is to just hang up the phone!
It is important to break the silence around scams. There is absolutely no need to feel embarrassed if you get tricked because it really can happen to anyone. Talking to our friends and family and sharing our stories keeps us all aware and much safer.
Customer Relationship Manager, Louise Ramage, gave a huge thank you to Rachel for coming along to Hampton Grove Care Home and sharing such vital tips to keep us and our loved ones safe.