THE NEWS YOU CAN TRUST
There are so many sources of news and information about coronavirus, but which ones should you trust to help you stay safe, protect the NHS and save lives? Coronavirus fraud and misinformation are barriers to the nation continuing the progress it has made toward coming to terms with, and beating, the virus. We take a look at how you can protect yourself, your friends and your family from being tricked into believing news and information that is not true, or becoming a victim of fraud.
The vast majority of the people across the UK have taken the official advice to stay at home, protect the NHS and save lives.
People are hungry for accurate information about how to protect themselves, but following the official advice and ignoring the swirling mass of uninformed conjecture, opinion and speculation is not always easy.
However, there are ways to identify who to trust, and who to ignore.
Similarly, there are ways to identify the small but persistent group of unscrupulous individuals who have decided that they want to use the pandemic to try to make financial gain through fraud.
There have been a lot of examples of false information and attempts at fraud.
For example, holding your breath for 10 seconds is not a test for coronavirus, gargling water for 15 seconds is not a cure and phone masts cannot cause coronavirus.
There have also been comments and suggestions from people claiming to be medical experts who are simply not.
Fraudsters will use any opportunity - including the current pandemic - to try to trick people out of their money.
There have been examples of fake texts claiming to be sent from the Government alerting people they have received a fine for breaking social distancing rules. Some people and even businesses have been tricked into paying for protective face masks and hand sanitizers from companies that don’t exist
There have also been messages from criminals sending messages to trick people into thinking they are getting genuine offers of financial support from the government.
At the same time hackers are stepping up attempts to access people’s networks and steal their log in details and passwords.
However, if you take sensible precautions, you can quickly spot signs of fraud and identify the facts from the fiction.
Sharing the right information could save lives.