Volunteers Signed Up To Raise Awareness Of Cyber Crime

Lancashire Police has signed up more than 30 volunteers to deliver basic cyber and digital presentations to various communities around the county.

The volunteers have a vast range of skills and experience across a range of sectors and include a forensic science and criminal investigations student, an ex-primary school teacher, an Arabic teacher in inter-faith schools, civil servant, IT and computer sales managers and a retired BT engineer in digital technology.

All the volunteers will be provided with a full training package and regular training to allow them to deliver presentations to schools, businesses and community groups.

Louisa Murphy, digital investigations & intelligence learning & development co-ordinator at Lancashire Police says: “Cyber crime is an increasing issue in Lancashire as it is across the country. We have drawn on volunteers within the community to provide them with different inputs on the different issues of cyber crime, to enable them to raise awareness on how to protect others on the internet and prevent them being a victim of cyber crime.”

Police and Crime Commissioner, Clive Grunshaw welcomed the new approach and the commitment from the volunteers in the programme:  "It was great to see so many volunteers come forward as part of this scheme that looks to give back to the community and help keep people safe online. We know that as much as half of all crime now has some element of online technology, whether card fraud, hacking businesses or stalking and harassment.

"This scheme will raise awareness of the risks of cyber crime and will help stop people committing crime as well as ensuring people can protect themselves from becoming a victim.  With the scale of cyber crime, and this is only the crime we know about, there can be no 'one-size-fits-all' approach to tacking what is a huge problem.

 "When money that is stolen online can vanish in seconds, prevention has to be our watchword. These volunteers will help us understand the problems people are facing, offering help and advice to tackle crimes before they are committed, and give the people of Lancashire the best support possible."

Student Alice Dachtler-Wood says: “Young people are into digital technology from a very early age, but I want to raise awareness of the consequences that can happen by not fully understanding what they are doing or posting.”

Another volunteer Lee Cartmell who is Head of Information Security at Yodel added: “I wanted to use the knowledge I have in my day job, alongside this training to promote internet safety to businesses so they are aware of potential scams and what to do if they are affected to ensure minimal disruption. Using volunteers is a great way to get out into the community and spread the word on cyber crime prevention.”