Cost of living/fuel poverty and safeguarding

Find out what support is available to help with the cost of living at GOV.UK. This includes income and disability benefits, bills and allowances, childcare, housing and travel.

From October, with the government’s price freeze in effect, National Energy Action predicts 6.7 million UK households will be in fuel poverty. It means they cannot afford to live in a warm, dry and safe home. National Energy Action is the national charity working to end fuel poverty in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.

Changes to our bodies as we get older mean that cold weather and winter bugs affect us more than they used to. Age UK provides tips on staying healthy through winter.

Action Fraud is the UK’s national reporting centre for fraud and cyber crime. You can report this directly to Action Fraud either online or by telephone. Information and support is available on the Action Fraud website.

Here is an example of an Amazon scam. Beware, there are many more.

Action Fraud has warned that people are being targeted with automated calls which tell them that a fraudster has used their personal details to sign up for an Amazon Prime subscription. The victim is then instructed to press “1” to cancel the transaction. When they do this, they are directly connected to the real scammer who poses as an Amazon customer service representative. The criminal tells the victim that the Amazon Prime subscription was purchased fraudulently and that they need remote access to the victim’s computer in order to fix a security flaw which will prevent it from happening again. The victim is instructed to download an application called Team Viewer and asked to log onto their online banking account. The software download grants the fraudster remote access to the victim’s computer and allows them to see the victim’s personal and financial details. Other variants of the crime involve victims being told they are due a refund for an unauthorised transaction on their Amazon account. Action Fraud is reminding people to never install any software as a result of a cold call.

Romance fraud occurs when you think you’ve met the perfect partner online but they’re using a fake profile to form a relationship with you. You might meet them via an online dating website or app, social media platforms such as Facebook and Instagram or gaming sites. They gain your trust over a number of weeks or months and have you believe you’re in a loving and caring relationship. However, the criminal’s goal is only ever to get your money or personal information.

Between August 2019 and August 2020, 222 reports of romance fraud were made to Action Fraud by residents of Hampshire. The total reported loss in the same time period was £2million, equating to an average loss per victim of just over £9,000.

If you think you’ve been a victim of romance fraud or a romance-based scam, contact your bank immediately and report it to Action Fraud online or call 0300 123 2040.

Hampshire Constabulary receives over 700 reports of fraud or attempted fraud each month. Many of these target elderly or vulnerable members of the community and the consequences can be extremely damaging, both financially and emotionally, for the victims. A number of useful guides, in particular for those vulnerable members of our communities, can be accessed on the Hampshire Constabulary website.

• Protect your passwords. Set a strong password and never share it with anyone. Use a combination of special characters, capital letters and numbers and aim to change your passwords every 90 days
• Don’t do anything online that you wouldn’t do in real life. Be nice to people. Don’t get into arguments with strangers. Don’t share anything too private or personal
• Be scam-aware. Never click links in dodgy emails. Understand that your bank or building society will never contact you by email asking for personal details or money transfers. And remember that if something seems too good to be true, it probably is!

You can visit the Ann Craft Trust's website for information and resources on digital safeguarding, digital scams, cyber bullying and more.

Friends Against Scams is a National Trading Standards Scams Team initiative which aims to protect and prevent people from becoming victims of scams by empowering them to take a stand against scams. Friends Against Scams is designed to inspire action, highlight the scale of the problem, change the perceptions of why people fall for scams and make scams a community, regional and national topic. It has a page dedicated to updating you on the latest scams.

Visit the Friends Against Scams website where you can sign up to scam alerts.

Take Five is a national campaign led by UK Finance and backed by His Majesty’s Government. The campaign is being delivered with and through a range of partners in public and third sector organisations. It offers straightforward, impartial advice which helps prevent email, phone-based and online fraud, particularly where criminals impersonate trusted organisations. Visit the Take Five Campaign website for information and advice on fraud and how to prevent it.

Many phone handsets now let you see the number of the person calling before you answer. This feature – known as “Caller ID” or “Calling Line Identity” (CLI) – is a handy way of screening the calls you want to answer from the ones you don’t. However, there have been growing instances of nuisance callers and criminals deliberately changing the Caller ID, a practice known as “spoofing”. They do this to either hide their identity or to try to mimic the number of a real company or person who has nothing to do with the real caller. For example, identity thieves who want to steal sensitive information such as your bank account or login details sometimes use spoofing to pretend they’re calling from your bank or credit card company.

See more information and advice on how to protect yourself on the OfCom website.

The Little Book of Big Scams by the Met Police provides advice for you, the public, to fight against the increasing number of scammers targeting you, your valuable information and your money.