«What is the likelihood for a student to be involved in a crime or to be a victim of it?»

«What kind of crime? The reason I ask that is because London is a relatively safe city. You’re unlikely to be attacked or injured, certainly by somebody you don’t know. You’re very unlikely to be murdered, which is a good thing. The reality is that you’re probably more likely to be a victim of a fraud. And that might be online shopping, so when you try buying something on eBay, and it never arrives... Being phoned up and told that you have a problem with your computer...»

«Yes, it actually happened to me quite a few times...»

«There you go. So, have you had anything stolen or have you ever been attacked in London?»

«No.»

«But you have been a victim of an attempted fraud.»

«Yes.»

«Have you ever received texts from HMRC, so from the tax authorities saying that you need to pay tax?»

«No.»

«There’s lots of those going around... Have you ever received an email from PayPal asking you to check your monthly usage? You still get it even if you don’t have it... So, you’re asking what are you most likely to become a victim. That’s when you’re more likely to become a victim. It is actually relatively rare for people to be physically attacked, to being robbed in the streets, even burglary has gone down. So, yes, that’s probably what you are most likely to suffer. And, that’s supported by the crime figures, if you have a look at crime surveys for the UK it could give you information about the type of crime and the number of people who suffered from that crime, and you’ll see the high numbers of fraud among the crimes’ figures, I think across all age groups.»

«What people should do when they receive a fraud email? How they should behave?»

«There’s a system called “Action Fraud” and you can send a copy of that email to them. So if you go to the site it tells you everything on how you can send it to them. And on top of that you’re also gonna find lots of good advice about how to avoid certain types of fraud, how to be aware of them... That’s the biggest risk statistically.»

«Which are the safest websites to find accommodations?»

«I think they’re all relatively safe. But I think the point is understanding how those sites work. For example, Gumtree it’s a noticeable, so you go to Gumtree, you pay them a fee and they will put up a little notice, they will not do any checking around that. If it’s a website where they actually check the landlords then you’ll be a bit more supported, but you’ll pay a bit more. Or you can arrange a meeting with the landlord in a public space and also bring a friend if you’re not comfortable enough.»

«What would you think could be the safest area to find accommodations for students?»

«It’s difficult to say... I think it’s more about how you behave, the things you do that make you vulnerable rather than where you live. Which way you live actually doesn’t matter necessarily, because you might have been visiting friends, you might have been travelling around London... It’s things about not walking around, coming out of the tube checking your phone, because stealing phones is quite common. So, when you get out of a tube station don’t get your phone out, check it. Because there are people looking to steal it. Another one is walking on the street with your phone out...»

«Lately the news that knife crimes have increased has been discussed a lot. Is it something people should be aware of while walking around London?»

«It’s very unlikely. I’ve got a question for you: which age group would you think would be at most risk of being murdered?»

«I don’t know, young adults?»

«No, babies. By their parents. The murder rate in the UK is very low. I’d be really careful about what you read in the papers. Between the UK and Italy, what would you think has the highest murder rate?»

«Italy, probably?»

«No, Italy has half the murder rate of the UK. But you read news in the papers that make you think the opposite. So, I’d be careful about it, they give you the worst trick. Yes, there are attacks with knives, but they tend to happen between people who know each other within gangs. So, if you’re not part of a gang here in London, then you’re probably not gonna get attacked. And yes, being part of a gang could increase your chances of being murdered, but it still relatively unlikely. I think the murder rate is about 700 a year over a population of 60 million people.»

«What young people should be aware of while going out the night with their friends?»

«A lot of the problems are linked to alcohol, people drinking too much. So, look after each other if you’re going out with a group, keep an eye on each other. If you find someone passed out on the street help him, call an ambulance...»

«Do you think there’s anything young people should be aware here in London?»

«Free Wi-Fi. Be careful of free Wi-Fi in places like Starbucks, Costa, McDonald’s... Because it’s very easy actually to intercept and see what people are sending.»

«So you’re saying that someone could collect all your personal details?»

«Yes, none of your emails are encrypted. Let’s say you are in a cafe somewhere and you connect your phone to their free Wi-Fi. It might not be the cafe’s Wi-Fi, it might be someone sitting at a table with a laptop and an app to look like the Wi-Fi and it’s very easy to do. There’s a friend of mine who does that as a demonstration. And he would usually have about 7 or 8 Wi-Fi set up on one laptop and he lets people connect to the Wi-Fi with their phones. And it would look exactly like the authentic one. So, if you’re using free Wi-Fi be aware that, unless you’re using something to protect yourself, other people could see what you’re sending.»

«How can I protect my phone so it won’t happen? Should I use a VPN?»

«Yes, use a VPN. Because everything is encrypted from the app all the way through. Also be careful with airports’ Wi-Fi. That’s the sorts of advice more useful probably... Don’t use the same password for different sites. And the most important one is the password of your email account, which should be different from any other password, because that’s the key one. If you forget a password you’d need to put your email to change it. So, if someone can get into your email they can get into practically anything, because that’s what’s used to recap. A really good password on your personal email account would be ideally.»

«So should you use all the different characters suggested on the page of the site when you’re creating a new password? Because if it’s too complicated you probably won’t remember it»

«It’s got to be something you can remember and it’s getting harder and harder to do. I used to give the advice to use three unconnected words together which is sort of okay, and then maybe a number or a letter, something like that... But you want a complicated password and it’s surprising how many people still use passwords like 123. And another thing you could do is to update your software on your phone, on your laptop and on your iPad, it’s really important. Because with the update they correct problems. For example with the Apple software there was a problem with the mobile phones and the tablets and there was a particularly piece of malware that if you went to a certain website would stay and it would basically allow someone to see wherever you have been and it lasted until you turned off the device. But you can’t do that anymore, so if you haven’t had thatupdate you still vulnerable for that. So update your devices as often as you can. So, if you’re looking for three bits of good advice: don’t use public Wi-Fi, have a good password and update your software. And that’s what it’s gonna save you from most of the fraud crimes. Because you’re more likely to suffer from that: malware on your laptops, phones or clicking on links is another one.»

«Which is safer between Android or iPhone?»

«iPhone is a lot safer. Because it generally won’t run programs. With Apple is it’s much to get something unpleasant into it. And iPhones and iPads won’t run programs if you click on a link so it’s safer. But it’s a bit more expensive.»

«Which card is better to use when you buy things online?»

«A credit card, ‘cause you can get your money back. But it’s safer to use something like PayPal or a prepaid credit card.»

«And what should I do if I would need a refund, but they ask me to give my card details to them on the phone?»

«How sure are you that you’re speaking to a genuine service who’s not trying to steal your details? If it’s John Lewis then fine. If it’s someone who contacted you through eBay and you don’t know them don’t do that. It’s thinking about the risks, if you know who you’re dealing with, you phoned them, you spoke to them, you have a relationship, if there’s a reason for that. That’s probably fairly safe. It’s when you don’t know who you’re dealing with really or if they’ve contacted you rather you contacted them...»

«How can I spot fake advertising in shopping sites?»

«If you’re not comfortable and you think there’s something wrong don’t go for it, if the price it’s too good and it doesn’t make sense, making you doubt why they’re selling the item for so little money. Be careful if you’re ever gonna buy a car, cars are a problem... Doubt of those that ask you to do things as paying them in cash instead using PayPal or sending money to a western union. I’d say read the advice on eBay, they got really good advice to warn you or buy items on Amazon that have the tick which means that Amazon really checked those things.»

«Do you think there’re more fraud crimes related to students that we didn’t talk about?»

«Students are much less vulnerable too. Like, online dating fraud’s relatively safe, they don’t have money so they are unlikely to be caught up in investments... Job adverts, when you’re asked to pay something upfront. When you see a job and then they ask you to pay something, to get a visa or a qualification... Where they’re offering you a job and they are asking you to pay money before you get the job, that should be a real warning sign. So, that could be the case for people just finishing college or looking for a summer job, something that says:”Come to work at...but you need to do a little bit of training first and you need to pay for that training”. Or if they ask you to buy a kit for something. Talking about social media make sure that your security check is locked down, so if you have a public account make it private. Don’t link up with people you don’t know, ‘cause that’s been used in the past to get information about people. I mean in most cases it’s okay, they’re normal people, but if you want to find about somebody, for example, looking at their Facebook you can see who their friends are, you can see pictures of them, you can get a feel of who they are, even of where they are, where they go. For example, if you tweet you can see where someone’s tweetingfrom and if half of your tweets come from where you work and where you live I can know where you work and where you live and I think people don’t realise it.»

«So, you’re saying that the location in the setting of our phones should be always turned off.»

«Yes. And you can turn off the location for each application on your phone. ‘Cause it will do strange things, software will look to link people and then see that you’ve been in the same place as somebody else three or four times at the same time. Then when you use social medias and they will start suggesting you people. And you’ll probably think:”How does it know that I know that person?”. It’s because you’re both have been in the same location at the same time with the same app. Which is probably not a problem, unless you’re having an affair meeting people you shouldn’t do. Anyway, you’re telling people a lot things, which if you understand it’s fine, but if you’re not comfortable with that or you don’t realise it, then it becomes a problem.»