Author: Stourpaine Parish Council

We are advising to be aware of a Silver Ssangyong 4×4 which has been venturing down farm tracks in the rural areas. The occupants of this vehicle have been seen acting suspiciously.

If you live in the rural areas of Dorset and see this vehicle venturing down farm tracks or it doesn’t appear to belong in that area please contact us on 101.

Dorset Police as part of its CyberSafe campaign is encouraging parents – or relatives, teachers and other adults responsible for safeguarding children, to ensure they stay safe online.

When computers first came in to our homes their use was easier to monitor as they were static and often kept in an open area of the home.

Now, of course, in the age of smartphones and tablets – effectively mini-computers that can be used anywhere – adults can find it a real challenge to not only educate children in doing the right thing, but monitor and control their online behaviour.

None of us – of whatever age – is immune from encountering problems online. Our children are certainly more vulnerable and naturally more trusting than adults. Some of these potential issues are as follows:

• Inappropriate contact: From people, who may wish to abuse, exploit or bully them.
• Inappropriate conduct: because of their own and others’ online behaviour, such as the personal information they make public, for example on social networking sites. Unfortunately, children can also become cyberbullies, especially when encouraged by others.
• Inappropriate content: being able to access or being sexually explicit, racist, violent, extremist or other harmful material, either through choice or in error.

Here is a simple checklist from the Dorset Safe Schools and Communities Team to help you keep your children safe online. 

1. Talk, talk, talk. The most important thing for parents and carers is to have lots of conversations with their children and young people about what they are using, how these website/apps work, why they enjoy them, who else is using them etc. In this way they may be able to identify any risky content, inappropriate contact or conduct at an early stage.
2. Allow access to the internet from devices within the family space. We do not recommend children and young people having computers or games consoles etc in their rooms.
3. Check virus protection. Ensure that mobile devices and laptops have the relevant software to protect from viruses and other malware. There are several free brands that update regularly and provide good protection or there is other commercially available software.
4. Subscribe to their Internet Service Provider’s family filtering service. All major providers now have this service free of charge – the account holder simply goes to their account online and ticks the relevant boxes. This will prevent different types of content from being available via the router in a particular location. Note this does not have any effect on devices that are not accessing the internet via the router eg 3G/4G phone signal.
5. Use Safe Searching. Most search engines such as Google and YouTube have a safe search facility under the settings menu. Parents and carers of young children particularly may wish to use this to stop them coming across inappropriate material.
6. Tighten privacy settings on websites and apps. Parents and carers should try to ensure that any social media accounts or apps are set to the highest privacy settings to prevent unknown or inappropriate people from viewing or contacting children and young people – this can be found under Settings in most websites/apps. Often the default setting for these types of account is public meaning that everyone can see content including pictures and videos.
7. Consider using Parental Controls on devices. Parents and carers may wish to use Parental controls on laptops, mobile devices or games consoles. These controls can limit the times the device can be used, whether apps/games can be downloaded and whether the internet can be accessed. iPads, Windows and new Android (4.3 or higher operating system) have built in parental controls: for older Android devices, apps may need to be downloaded to provide parental controls.

More advice can be found on the Dorset Police CyberSafe website. cybersafe.dorset.police.uk   – Please log on for further advice and details.

The National Fraud Intelligence Bureau (NFIB) has received intelligence regarding two new Lottery Fraud letters/email attachments (Scam 1 & Scam 2) using the 2016 Rio Olympics as a theme.

The scams try to trick people into believing they have won the following:

Scam 1: An online lottery prize of £650,000 and a trip to Brazil to watch the Olympics as the recipient’s email address was chosen out of a possible ten million at random.

Scam 2: An online lottery prize of £820,000 and a trip to Brazil to watch the Rio Carnival and the Olympics as the recipient’s winning numbers 8 17 34 38 42 and 51 were selected.

In order to collect the winnings the recipient is requested to contact:

Scam 1:
Mr Dima Robert
MillMan Street, WC1N 3JB. London A5200.
Tel: +447035973561
Email: RioOlympics2016@represnetative.com

Scam 2:
‘UK Pay out Officer’
Email:paymaster-office@bol.co.br
+44 7937428753

Protect yourself from lottery fraud

• Never respond to any such communication. If you have not entered a lottery then you cannot have won it.
• Official lotteries in other countries operate in much the same way as the UK’s National Lotto.
• No official lotteries that we know of contact people to tell them of their win.
• We do not know of any official lottery operators who ask for fees to collect winnings.  Any request for a fee payment is a good indication that someone is trying to defraud you.
• Never disclose your bank details or pay fees in advance.
• If they have provided an email address to respond to, be very suspicious of addresses such as @hotmail.com or @yahoo.com or numbers beginning with 07 because these are free to get hold of.
• Genuine lotteries thrive on publicity. If they ask you to keep your win a secret, it is likely to be a fraud.
• Many fraudulent lotteries have bad spelling and grammar – see this as a warning that fraudsters are at work.

If you believe that you have been a victim of fraud you can report it online http://www.actionfraud.police.uk/report_fraud or by telephone 0300 123 2040.

North Dorset officers are investigating a break in at a petrol filling station in the Stalbridge area  at approximately 03.30hrs this morning.

Offenders have gained access and stolen a large amount of cigarettes and then left towards the town area.
If you have any information that may relate to this or you are aware of persons selling cigarettes in suspicious circumstances, please let our officers know by calling on 101 quoting incident 14:023.

Thank you.

People looking for a cheap designer bargain online are being targeted by fraudsters advertising fake designer goods. The items received are usually cheap and inferior counterfeits of handbags, clothes and sunglasses amongst other things.

The general rule is ‘if it looks too good to be true then it probably is.’ Designer products sold at heavily discounted prices are an immediate sign that something isn’t quite right.

What can you do to protect yourself?

• Where possible, buy from well-known, High Street retailers. If you’ve never heard of a firm, or it is based overseas, be sceptical.
• Avoid paying by cheque or bank transfer.  Use PayPal or a credit card as they will give you additional protection.
• Search the internet. Type the website you are buying from and look for reviews of what others customers are saying about the company. Bad customer service feedback usually finds their way online quite quickly.
• Check for spelling mistakes or poor grammar on websites as this may suggest the website has been put together by a fraudster.
• Sign up to Action Fraud Alert at https://www.actionfraudalert.co.uk/ to keep you updated with what’s going on.

If you believe that you have been a victim of fraud you can report it online http://www.actionfraud.police.uk/report_fraud or by telephone 0300 123 2040.