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Issue:- 28 November 2013

Formby Christmas Lights 2013!
Photographs by Patrick Trollope.

THE Formby Village Centre was transformed into an amazing winter wonderland, with stalls, rides and live music, at what was the first full day Christmas Lights Switch On. The organiser, Pat Wordley, and the new team have been highly praised for this event which has replaced the Dickensian Day. The attractions included Father Christmas and live music, with the thanks of the Mersey Cats. One of the biggest attractions that you can see all through the festive season is a giant snowman the traffic island at the War Memorial end of Chapel Lane. The lights are amazing and well worth a look, if passing though the village at night. Also please do call in to the businesses and also the many cafes and bars, like Woodwoods. Unlike most places, Formby this year chose to have full community participation and no celebrities turning on the lights. Instead as it was focused on the community, the group chose local history author Joan Rimmer together with local resident Ann Batchelor, along with 3 young helpers, to turn on the lights.

Please take a look at our photographs we have taken at this event, by click on here now, to see what it was like.   Also a bit of video is attached to this report as well!  Also if you attended the event please let us know what you thought about it by emailing us at:- news24@southportreporter.com.

Don't fall for the CrytoLocker Scam!

THIS week Barclays' and UK Police forces are reminding the public and businesses to be on their guard after a massive rise in phishing scams incidents across the UK. In November a warning was issued as 'Severe' in UK after a significant rise in identity fraud cases happening.  Now over the last week, we have been told that Barclays' has seen a significant rise in fake emails reporting to be from them. At first glance they do look like they could be, but most carry either a link to a fake site or in this case, a zip file. A lot of these files have recently been associated with CryptoLocker ransomware. Often a fraudster sends out a millions of these emails, that appear to be from banks and other financial institutions.

Often they have wording like 'suspicious transaction' or 'invoice for payment' in the subject line. If you fall for these scams, and it is a CryptoLocker file, then you will find that the attachment will install a program on your computer. Once installed, personal files such as, photos, music, office documents etc. are encrypted and a screen appears with a countdown timer and a demand for the payment of 2 Bitcoins in ransom (approximately £536) for the decryption key. This scam is mainly aimed at small and medium sized businesses as of late. The UK's NCA's National Cyber Crime Unit (NCCU) says:- "You should never send the payment of a ransom to criminals as there is no guarantee that they would honour the payments in any event." If you think you are a victim, report it to Action Fraud  on:- 0300 123 2040. Also once a computer becomes infected with any virus and/or spyware, you must disconnect it from any network, and seek professional assistance to clean the computer. You should also always keep backups of all your important files and store them off your network. Also keep your Antivirus and anti-spyware software and operating systems updated. But the most important thing is:- "Never click or download unsolicited email attachments. Always check before clicking on any email to see if anything is amiss. If it is - do not click on any links, attachments or reply to it!" say Barclays Plc.