Neighbourhood Watch
The Neighbourhood Watch Scheme is one of the biggest and most successful crime prevention initiatives in the country. Members increasingly support the police to keep villages, like ours, safe by identifying and recording potential crime, vandalism and suspicious activities in villages like ours.
Cosgrove (S60 NHW) members are empowered to report non serious crime on the Northamptonshire website which is monitored daily.
Report crimes in progress or threats to person: Dial 112 | 999 (ask for the police)
Register to Join the Scheme
- Receive notifications of crimes committed
- Cut crime and the opportunities for crime
- Help and reassure those who live in the area
- Encourage neighbourliness and closer communities
- Create better places in which to live, work & play
- Support the police to keep us safe
Action Fraud says Look Out for Phishing Emails
Suspicious Email Reporting Service (SERS) received 2,924 reports in March 2025, rising from 133 reports in February.
The National Cyber Security Centre’s SERS highlight extortion referred to as ‘Financially Motivated Sexual Extortion’ (FMSE).
Email and subject lines can vary, but the theme is consistent:
- The phishing email claims to have installed malware on the recipient’s computer and recorded them visiting adult websites.
- The sender will then coerce the email recipient to pay a ransom demand by threatening to release the videos.
- The ransom is usually demanded in a form of cryptocurrency, such as Bitcoin.
To make these phishing attacks convincing:
- Emails often include genuine pieces of personal information relating to the victim, such as a password or home address (likely obtained from historic breaches of personal data).
Analysis shows that many people who received these emails also later reported becoming victims of online account hacking.
What to do if you receive a phishing email:
- Do not to engage with the phisher
- Forward the email to report@phishing.gov.uk, the NCSC's Suspicious Email Reporting Service (SERS), and then delete it.
- Paying the Bitcoin ransom may encourage further scams as a phisher realises you are willing to pay. You could be targeted with additional demands.
- Inclusion of genuine passwords or other personal information in phishing emails is a means you may have been affected by a historic data breach. Use this service to check which of your online accounts were affected Have I Been Pwned
- If the phishing email includes a password you still use, then change it immediately.
- Follow this advice on how to create suitable passwords and enable other factors of authentication is available here:Stop Think Fraud Campaign - Improve Password Security
- If you have been a victim of extortion, or concerned that someone may be in possession of intimate images of you, report it to your local police force by calling 101.
- Find out how to protect yourself from fraud: Stop Think Fraud
- If you’ve lost money or provided financial information as a result of any phishing scam, notify your bank immediately and report it to Action Fraud Report Phishing or by calling 0300 123 2040.
