Take Five Week: Helping Our Learners Stay Safe from Fraud

Fraud is now one of the fastest‑growing crimes in the UK, and scammers are becoming increasingly clever in the ways they try to trick people online, by phone, or through messages. Take Five Week, part of the national Take Five to Stop Fraud campaign, encourages everyone to pause before acting — because taking just a moment to think can prevent you from becoming a victim.

This week, our learners on our Free IT Workshop Online Safety: Stay Protected explored this very topic. They looked at how scammers create urgency, how to spot suspicious messages, and how to protect personal information. In the spirit of Take Five Week, we wanted to share some of these helpful tips with all of you.

The campaign focuses on three simple steps: Stop, Challenge, Protect.

• Stop — Take a moment before clicking, replying, or sharing information.
• Challenge — Ask yourself whether the request is genuine. It’s okay to say no or ignore it.
• Protect — If something feels wrong, contact your bank or the organisation directly using trusted details.

These small actions can make a big difference. Many scams rely on rushing you, making you panic, or pretending to be someone official. Slowing down and questioning what you see is one of the strongest defences you have.

At Havering Adult College, we want all our learners to feel confident and safe online — whether you’re banking, shopping, studying, or simply staying in touch with friends and family. If you’re interested in learning more about online safety, we run free workshops designed to help you spot scams, protect your devices, and stay secure.

From our most recent workshop a learner left us with this feedback – “Very good course… it gave me more confidence on IT issues and dealing with fraud, security, etc.”

If you’d like to join a future session, get in touch with us to enrol. A little learning can go a long way in keeping you — and your loved ones — safe.

Take five today. It could protect you tomorrow.