IN THE age of online scams and frauds, a Whitchurch IT company recently released a blog reminding people to stay safe online from crooks.

Rainford IT has been advising people on staying safe from cyber-crooks for many years.

While scams have been occurring for several years, Dane Rainford, from Rainford IT said the problem is worse and criminals are exploiting people being at home more, especially the elderly.

Dane said: “I had a woman two weeks ago who rang me and told me that she’d lost £3000 the day before.

“It’s scary to think they’re so vulnerable but you’ve got to do what you can and before lockdown we were doing a lot of workshops around Whitchurch educate people.”

The ability of the police to tackle these crimes is limited due to the online nature of these crimes.

“When you’ve got someone on the other side of the world in a different country, it’s very difficult for the UK police to do anything about it,” Dane said

“There’s the action fraud number which is very helpful but I think it’s more down to banks and email providers to do more about it and they are trying.

He added more were aware of the hazards online and taking steps to prevent themselves falling victim to online crooks.

If you are a victim of online crime you can call ActionFraud on 0300 123 2040 or visit www.actionfraud.police.uk