The Great British Beach Clean starts this weekend

THE Great British Beach Clean, hosted by the UK's leading marine charity, the Marine Conservation Society (MCS) will take place this weekend, from 20 September to 23 September 2019. Members of the public are urged to join the charity to clear litter from the UK's coastline and help collect valuable data. In 2018, 15,000 volunteers took part, removing an incredible 8,550 kilos of litter from beaches around the UK. The charity hopes to surpass 2018's record breaking numbers with an even bigger turnout of volunteers helping to keep the UK's beaches beautiful. Volunteers at the Great British Beach Clean not only remove harmful marine litter, but become citizen scientists too who record valuable data which MCS uses to influence policy changes at a national level. Volunteers are asked to record all the litter they find along a designated 100m stretch of beach which helps MCS build a picture of the most prolific litter types and tackle them at source.

Environment Minister, Rebecca Pow, said:- "Litter blights out beaches and threatens our ocean life. Thanks in part to the efforts of countless volunteers across the UK each year, we can help to keep them clean and protect the wildlife that lives there. But we can't just deal with the damage caused by litter and plastic pollution - we need to tackle this issue at source and we are taking action. I encourage everyone to take part in this year's Great British Beach Clean and to do their bit to help protect our environment. It can also be great fun."

Lizzie Prior, MCS Beachwatch Officer, said:- "Taking part in the Great British Beach Clean really can make a difference. In previous years when we've highlighted increases in dog poo bags and sewage related debris found on beaches and seen drops in numbers subsequently. Collecting data on litter across the UK's beaches is all important in turning the tide on plastic and marine pollution."

Cleaning and surveying a beach only takes a couple of hours at most. Each beach has a coordinator who explains how to fill in a simple data form, then it's just a case of grabbing a litter picker and a bin bag and filling it up with rubbish. Whilst some of the UK's beaches may look clean at 1st glance, last year's cleans found an average of 600 items of litter per 100m of beach; volunteers are sure to find more than they might expect. This year, for the 1st time, the Great British Beach Clean will be sponsored by the Ocado Foundation, the charitable arm of the online supermarket. The Foundation will be sponsoring the event to the tune of ₤300,000 as part of the Environmental Pillar of its:- 'Ocado Way - Corporate Responsibility Strategy.'

Suzanne Westlake, Head of Corporate Responsibility and Corporate Affairs, Ocado Foundation, said:- "We're delighted to be teaming up with the Marine Conservation Society on the GBBC. As a retailer we take our responsibilities with waste very seriously. We are very proud to be part of the event and the clean-up of Britain's beaches it will achieve."

Players of People's Postcode Lottery also support the Marine Conservation Society beach litter programme. Sign up to a clean near you online now and if you can't find an event on your preferred beach, call the MCS on:- 01989 566017 and find out how you can organise your own.

Fake Overdue Invoices being sent to freelancers and small businesses

WELL, this is the latest scam email we have spotted doing the rounds, targeting businesses. This email tries to get you to open a zip file, which has a virus on it.

Not all emails like this have a virus on them though. Some of these emails though, just have a file with a link on it ,or an invoice with a phone number on it that takes you to a scammer, often via a premium phone line. Others, get you to follow a website link to a fake website, again with viruses on or various other forms of scams.

In short, this is a common email scam, but it still works, as people in offices are often not looking as carefully as usual, and just read the words 'overdue' and 'invoice', so they open up the attachment, just in case they have overlooked a bill.

But, if you ever get emails like this, we always advise our readers to check the following:-

1. Is the email from the company it says it is from?

2. Does the return email address go to the same email address as it is sent from or to the person it calms to be sent from?

3. Check the 'subject' title.

4. Check to see if your email address is the only email address on it.

5. If it is a zip file, do not open it!

6. Any other contact information?

7. Does the text within the email explain who you are meant to pay and why?

8. Check the date format and also does it say when the payment was 1st requested?

9. Who is named on the email?

10. Do you know who the named person if, if any are named?

	This email is not showing an email address but clearly said:- "Recipients" suggesting it has been sent to a number off addresses, not just yours.  Very strange if you are cashing a bill not to see your email address on it.  Some times people do put others on emails depending on contact of the email being sent, but if it is like this or has lots of addresses that look random, stay clear and look harder at the email.
	Addressed to Dear/Ma,  This is not what you would expect from a solicitors.
	Again, this should have at lease the company's name or the employee who placed the order...
	The firm is in existence, but remember the senders email address?  It clearly says:- "Loydfarms," not what you would expect from a group chancing up a payment.  Also, we would not suggest you do this, but the URL the email is being sent from is from a site that is no longer working!
	Again the senders email address is a red flag as it has another name on it.  In this case it shows the name:- "Pat" and not "Anne."  You might expect some other relevant connection, for example:- "Collections" if not 'her' name, but a completely different name is a big red flag!

If you get the word YES to any of these questions, we suggest you bin the email. Sadly this is not good if it is a real email, but if they have sent it that way, you can definitely explain why you deleted it. Also we strongly suggest that you never open emails that have zip files from people you do not know. These zip files are often a way to get past your anti virus systems. Sadly you should take care of any attachments event photos, as again they can, at times be used as Trojan horses for scams.

If you spot a scam you think we should report on, please do tell us about it, especially those targeting small businesses. We are currently aware of a BREXIT scam, which is connected to tax and payment. We will be getting you more information on this scam very soon. To alert us to a scam, please send us an email along with a description of the scam or send a description via our Facebook Page.