Unfortunately email SCAMS are a regular occurrence these days despite all our best endeavours to protect our individual email accounts.
Strete Parish Council (SPC) has set up gov.uk email accounts for each councillor to show recipients that the emails councillors send are from a trusted UK public sector organisation. The gov.uk domains are monitored for potential security vulnerabilities, which will be reported to the Parish Council by the Protecting Public Sector Domains Team at Cabinet Office. However, the Parish Council have received reports that some unscrupulous people are setting up email addresses in some of SPC councillors names using a different domain requesting a favour. SPC have no control over this and there is nothing that can be done, except to be vigilant by checking the email name includes gov.uk. If it doesn't, it is not legitimate and should be deleted.

Strete Parish Council have received thanks from Dartmouth Caring for the £500 donation contribution towards their community support programme.
Please click here to see their thank you letter.

Strete Social Club
Further to your email regarding the Grant Payment, I formally thank Strete Parish Council for the generous support for Strete Social Club. The Grant enables us to continue providing a fortnightly meeting of companionship and fun for the community. It helps those living alone and those new to the village. Your Grant meets the costs of hiring the Hall meaning that I can book a range of interesting speakers while keeping subscriptions as low as possible. The Club must continuously try to recruit new members. We sadly lost our third member this year but we have also gained a new member. Thank you for the Grant which is very much appreciated and will be put to very good use.
Best regards,
Karen Hales
Chair of Strete Social Club

159 is a UK-wide telephone number that you can use to contact your bank's fraud department. It works similar to how 111 is used for the NHS and 101 for non-emergency calls to the police. Calling 159 allows you to speak to someone from your bank's fraud team. They can help you check on potential scams, and verify the legitimacy of a call or message you may have received claiming to come from your bank. You can also use this number for added reassurance, prior to taking part in any new financial transaction. If you receive a suspicious call or message, involving any type of financial transaction, including those claiming to be from your bank, your telecoms provider, HRMC, the police, STOP. Then call 159 to check on the call or messages authenticity. If you are making the call in response to an incoming telephone call, ideally dial 159 from a different phone to ensure the scammer can't intercept or redirect your call. If you only have one phone available to use, wait a short while, then phone a friend who's voice you will recognise. This ensures that you phone line is now clear. Then call 159. 159 is a safe and secure way to contact your bank, helping to protect you from financial fraud. The service is supported by major UK banks and telecommunications companies. 159 will never call you.
If you wish to report a Fraud or Cyber Crime please visit: www.actionfraud.police.uk