On the 23rd of October the Forum welcomed as guest speaker Kay Bainbridge who works as a police civilian with West Yorkshire Police Economic Crime Unit in Wakefield.

Kay’s job title is Victim Care and Prevention Officer and her talk was on Fraud Prevention. She described her role in fraud prevention and the operation of Action Fraud, a national reporting system operated by the City of London Police.

Forum members were asked how many of them had been the victims of computer fraud and a number admitted to this. Kay then analysed the methods of computer fraudsters and cold-calling telephone fraudsters. She advised members on ways to recognise fraudulent e-mails and the situations where victims are likely to lose considerable amounts of money.

Kay also detailed how members should recognise and deal with cold-callers. The best advice was – Ring Off!! Another modern fraud is Money Mules when victims are tempted into money laundering by the promise of large amounts of money being put into their accounts although the victims are mostly young people and they may suffer serious legal consequences.

A lively discussion followed until Forum Vice-Chairman Duncan Verity was forced to close the meeting by proposing a vote of thanks to Kay Bainbridge and her helper Liz Dixon.