The police, trading standards, fire service and others, are all putting out warnings (not all of which will be covered in the press sadly) to try and help people stay safe and have a great Christmas.
This time of year sees many people spending lots of money, meaning great opportunities for thieves and con artists. Please don’t make it easy for them. Below are a list of some of the things to bear in mind:

• Keep your purse/wallet/handbag safe. This time of year people often have more cash on them which, coupled with thicker coats where it’s harder to feel, make them prime targets for pickpockets.
• Make sure gifts are secured out of sight, be it in the car, or front room of the house. Don’t gift wrap someone else’s Christmas!
• Watch out for bogus emails warning about scams. These appear to have your best interests at heart, but are really hoping to obtain yours and other people’s email addresses in order to bombard everyone with spam. The latest one warns about Parcel Delivery Services (PDS) and invites the recipient to forward it on to their other contacts. PDS was a scam five years ago, whereby a card through the letterbox invited consumers to call a premium rate number in Belize to arrange delivery of a parcel. Those who rang ended up with bills of over £300 and there were no parcels available. Please do not forward these emails on – the regulator, PhonepayPlus, stopped the scam years ago.
  See www.phonepayplus.org.uk for more information.
• If you rely on a computer, especially for your Christmas shopping, watch out for calls from bogus IT Help Desks. A helpful person will explain that you have a virus on your PC and offer some virus protection software for a modest sum of £40. If you fall for this one, not only will you have given your bank details to crooks, but evidence suggests that the ‘software’ provided is malicious spyware which can lead to further problems with identity theft. Look at www.getsafeonline.org for more information.
• Be on your guard against doorstep callers. At this time of year, the chances are that they need your money more than you need what they’ve got on offer. And remember that you have a seven-day cooling off period for all work over £35 agreed to in your own home and that you must legally be given paperwork informing you of this.
• Only buy candles and other festive lighting from reputable suppliers.
• Be wary of doorstep competitions, where salespeople call door to door offering householders free raffle tickets to enter prize draws to win cars and other high priced items in return for supplying personal information. This information is often passed on to hard sell alarm companies or other commercial operations keen to part you from your money.
• If you like to put some clothes out for charity at this time of year, be aware that many doorstep collectors do not work for genuine charities and simply sell the clothing on for a healthy profit. The safe way to help a chosen charity is to drop your clothing off at the local charity shop.
• Watch out for doorstep callers offering to sell prepaid electricity meter top ups, sometimes at discounted rates. These are not genuine – only buy from official outlets. See www.top-upsafe.com for more information.