Cost of living crisis: West Sussex County Council offers support and guidance on how to prevent scams

Since September last year, the county council has been working with ‘Get Safe Online’ to recruit volunteers to a ‘Digital Ambassador’ programme, a spokesman from West Sussex County Council said.

To prevent victims from being targeted, the county council aims to educate people on the types of scams and how to avoid them. They will also provide equipment on loan to eliminate the risk of scammers defrauding victims.

The county council’s trading standards team will work alongside the community safety and wellbeing team to educate victims through ‘Safe Against Scams’ webinars. The webinars are designed to raise awareness of scams, how to spot them and what to do if you or someone you know falls victim to scammers.

A spokesperson from West Sussex County Copuncil said: “Our trading standards team do a lot of work with vulnerable residents across West Sussex who have already been targeted by scams, aiming to educate them on different types of scams and how to avoid them.

“They also provide telephone call blocking devices (on loan) to those who are vulnerable and receive large volumes of calls to their landline. The team work alongside our community safety and wellbeing team to run free monthly ‘Safe Against Scams’ webinars which help to raise awareness of different types of scams, how to spot them and what to do if you or someone you know become a victim.

“Since September last year, we have also been working with ‘Get Safe Online’ to recruit volunteers to a digital ambassador programme.

“We now have 23 fully trained ambassadors who are based across the county and can offer residents 1:2:1 sessions at local libraries, presentations and informal chats at community groups, or attendance at community events to talk about all things digital and help residents of all ages stay safe against scam emails and text messages.”

See more: Crawley MP welcomes Government’s growth plan: Labour leader calls it ‘An ideological budget purely designed to benefit the rich’, Cost of living crisis: Crawley autism charity under threat of closure just when ‘the community needs something like this the most’, Outstanding Sussex Police officers, staff and external partners recognised at West Sussex Divisional Awards

If you would like to find out more, please visit: Trading Standards support for consumers, Safe against Scams webinars, Support from Digital Ambassadors.