POLICE have issued internet safety advice in a bid to keep the elderly and vulnerable safe online.

Dorset officers have urged the public to keep an eye on neighbours and relatives as part of the force's CyberSafe campaign.

Director of Intelligence, Detective Superintendent Mark Callaghan, said: “Cyber safety is not an individual responsibility – it is everyone’s responsibility.

“Unfortunately there are cyber criminals out there waiting to commit fraud and dupe people out of their savings. 

“It is very easy to clone a real website and does not take a skilled developer long to produce a very professional-looking, but malicious site.

“I do not wish to scare people away from using the internet, but following some simple advice and advising others to use the internet safely could help to stop criminals from wiping out someone’s savings.”

Advice includes:

  • Check that a websites address is genuine by looking for misspellings, or a completely different name from what you would expect
  • Roll your mouse pointer over a link to reveal its real destination. Beware if this is different from what is displayed in the text
  • Do not enter personal information on a website that has no padlock in the browser or https:// at the beginning of the address
  • Some cookies can be used by criminals to build a profile of you with a view to fraud
  • Use an anti-spyware program that scans for so called tracker cookies
  • Always ensure you are running the latest version of your chosen browser
  • Ensure you have effective and updated antivirus/antispyware software and firewall running before you go online