This weekend I participated in the annual Crime Prevention Day hosted by Croydon Neighbourhood Watch. Its an important calendar event bringing together Croydon council, police, trading standards, Fire Brigade to explore community safety within the Borough.
As a committee member and Cyber Ambassador my focus , as ever, was to make people aware of new trends and explore ways in which we can support each other as ‘Neighbourhood Champions’.
I focused on Sim Swap Fraud as well as the recent BBC documentary The Sextortion Killers which focused on deconstructing how real time impersonation is enabled through AI directly through to a live chat on SnapChat.
On a positive note we looked at Ask Silver and Daisy the AI Granny from 02 – who has been a hit wherever we have taken her 😉
We also presented the referral pathway we are working on to provide in person support for those surviving cyber crime or believe they have been compromised. This will look to link ActionFraud and the MET to community partners such as ourselves and the Cyber Helpline from one direction and Neighbourhoord Watch, statutory services and the charity sector from the other.
We support people with recovery plans and the means to be able to build their own cyber resilience in a supportive environment over a cup of tea.
In many respects we view this as the pastoral care side of things – something that requires a guiding hand, lots of listening and time.
For many people the anxiety surrounding either a cyber crime or the fear of it is simply too overwhelming and we have observed that this along can put people at risk.
The day was also an opportunity to launch ‘ClickSafe, Stay Strong’ a new initiative, in partnership with Renee at Croydon Community Leaders, to develop an awareness campaign and workshop resources to tackle online exploitation and cyber bullying for young people across the Borough – watch this space!
Last, but not least, another opportunity to connect with Barclays and the Scam Bus. Beth and Bernadette do a tireless job keeping people informed and better able to spot scams.
