Self Isolating Support

Financial Matters

With David Frederick FCCA | Marcus Bishop Associates | marcus-bishop.com

COVID 19 – The Risk Is More Than Your Health In the opening act of Macbeth, the witches chant, “Fair is foul, foul is fair”. This chant is so reflective of our current coronavirus challenge. The witches chanting mirrors the astute and agile behaviour of the cyber fraudsters engaged in email scamming. Do not become lulled into that singular mind set, thinking that the current battle is solely with how to avoid it and survive COVID 19. Such rational thought must expand to include a reflection of what is the meaning of the witches chant. As the global economies battle with COVID 19, global fraudsters have identified this as their latest opportunity. They have added COVID 19 to the old fashioned tactic of fear and have begun their own infection campaign of fraud.

Cyber fraudsters have been using a series of devious email campaigns coinciding with the evolving COVID 19 situation. Their campaign has been well crafted as significant members of the internet communities have lowered their email immune systems to coincide with a sense of nausea in some quarters from the virus outbreak. However, it is essential that during this period that you do not become obsessed by your health care at the expense of all aspects of your life. It is imperative that your online basics are not forgotten.

Several emails have been in circulation from cyber fraudsters regarding COVID 19. However, the COVID 19 Tax Refund shown OPPOSITE is most popular. It follows the same theme as the HMRC refunds. The suggestion is HMRC are providing COVID-19 tax refunds. Just as a reminder, this is far from the truth. Nevertheless, some individuals are being seduced into the web of the cyber fraudsters.

Two other popular emails are targeted at our polar emotions of fear and help. The first email, entices readers to click through for a COVID-19 cure. Attractive but a lie! The second email, appeals to our conscious as it entices readers to click through to make a donation to help fight the disease. Irrespective of your emotional desires clicking through will seriously damage your health, physically and financially. To ensure your cyber immune system is not exploited it is necessary to remember the advice from the UK National Cyber Security Centre: 1) Protect your email by using a strong and separate password Cyber criminals can use your email to access many of your personal accounts, leaving you vulnerable to identity theft. 2) Install the latest software and app updates Software and app updates contain vital security updates to help protect your devices from cyber criminals. 3) Turn on two-factor authentication on email Two-factor authentication is recommended for email accounts to make sure your data is secure. 4) Password managers: how they help you secure passwords Using a password manager can help you create and remember passwords. 5) Always back up your most important data Safeguard your most important data, such as your photos and key documents, by backing them up to an external hard drive or a cloudbased storage system. Remember for the cyber fraudster, “Fair is foul, foul is fair”

The government has taken urgent steps to list coronavirus as a notifiable disease in law As a precaution measure against COVID-19 in cooperation with National Insurance and National Health Services the government established new tax refund programme for dealing with the coronavirus outbreak in its action plan. You are eligible to get a tax refund (rebate) of 128.34 GBP. Access your funds now The funds can be used to protect yourself against COVID-19 (htt12s:// www.nhs.uk/conditions/coronaviruscovid-19/precautionary measure against corona) At 6.15pm on 5 March 2020, a statutory instrument was made into law that adds COVID-19 to the list of notifiable diseases and SARS-COV-2 to the list of notifiable causative agents. FAKE