New Friends Against Scams website has launched

Friends against scams are thrilled to announce the launch of their newly redesigned Friends Against Scams website. You can explore the new site here.

Their revamped website aims to be a comprehensive resource for anyone committed to combating scams. The website has all the features of the older version with improvements made to the back end making it easier for the Scams Team to report on session completion, Scam Marshal sign ups and other reporting so they can continue to improve the site.

SCAMchampions

If you are a SCAMchampion, the email address that you signed up with along with the number of Friends you have recruited have been loaded onto the new website. To re-activate the account, simply go to the SCAMchampion area (button at the top of the page) and then click ‘I’ve forgotten my password’, enter your email address and then click submit. You should the receive an email to reset your password. If you have any problems with this, please email them at friendsagainstscams@surreycc.gov.uk and they can reset your password manually.

Once you enter the SCAMchampion area, you can:

·         Edit your account – Name, local authority and password change

·         Add new event – If you are holding a Friends Against Scams session you can advertise it here by putting in the name of your event, the number of places available at the event and the location, you can manually add a pin in a map to make it easier for people to see events close to them. If you are holding a virtual event, we still recommend that you add it to the map to advertise.

·         Manage events – Here you can edit/delete events

·         Register new Friends – Add to your personal Friends counter as well as the national one.

You will also have access to all the training resources that you had before and if there is anything more you wanted on there, please get in touch.

Awareness sessions

The interactive Friends Against Scams awareness session is still available in the ‘Become a Friend’ section where users can complete the session in a variety of ways:

·         Register for a face-to-face meeting

·         The interactive training session

·         Watch the Friends Against Scams video

·         The Friends Against Scams video in British Sign language

·         Friends Against Scams Accessible version – You can also access several accessible materials through this link

Users can download their Friends Certificate after completing any of the above training sessions (except face to face where they should be issued with an individual certificate on the day).

The Practitioner eLearning training is currently being reviewed and updated and will be available on the website soon.

Unique URLs (Uniform Resource Locator)

Local authorities and Friends Against Scams Organisations had the opportunity to have a bespoke URL which users could access and complete the awareness session(s). This allowed the Scams Team to report back to the local authority or organisation on the number of people that had completed the training within a particular timeframe using that link.

If you had one of these URLs, the old link will no longer work. If you would like to renew your link, please get in touch with them at friendsagainstscams@surreycc.gov.uk and they will be happy to set you up with a new unique URL.

General Information

The website contains all the information that was on the previous site and hopefully you will now find it easier to navigate through. If you have any comments or suggestions then please do not hesitate to get in touch.