The latest scam warning from the local police:

North Yorkshire Police is warning local residents to be vigilant for an email scam in which the sender claims to be the local reverend and asks the recipient to purchase high value Amazon gift cards on their behalf.

Church wardens, treasurers and volunteers have been targeted, with some emails claiming to be from the Archbishop of York. The initial email follows a standard format and reads:

“Do you have a moment I have a request I need you to handle discreetly. I am currently busy in a prayer session, no calls so just reply my email.”

Then, if the recipient enters into a dialogue they will be asked to purchase Amazon gift cards as ‘thank you’ presents for members of the church family. The scammer provides reassurances that the money will be reimbursed and asks the individual to send photos of the gift cards or vouchers which allows them to collect the unique codes and use the cards to make online purchases.

Individuals who work or volunteer for churches in the Diocese of York have been targeted, with one church office holder purchasing gift cards but thankfully realising this was a scam before it was too late.

Residents are being urged to check the sender email address of any emails appearing to be from a reverend or other church representative and not to make any purchases based on email correspondence received.

Anyone receiving these emails should report it to North Yorkshire Police by calling 101.

North Yorkshire Community Messaging (NYCM) is managed by North Yorkshire Police.  The official website is www.nycm.co.uk which will allow you to sign into your account to change your delivery method preference or locations of interest. It also contains a FAQs section, which may assist with any queries you have.

Links and attachments:  North Yorkshire Police will only ever link you to secure web-sites we trust, we will only send you attachments where we believe it is absolutely necessary.

If you need to contact North Yorkshire Police please call 101 or in an emergency dial 999.  Alternatively please email any non urgent enquiries to: [email protected]

Please note that the arboretum and café will be closed tomorrow, Friday 21st August, including members’ entry from 10am, due to expected high winds. The arboretum and café will reopen on Saturday 22nd August.

We apologise for any inconvenience.

The Yorkshire Arboretum

Inevitably the arboretum’s finances have suffered terribly as a consequence of the pandemic. We reopened in June with encouraging numbers of visitors, and the café is now back in part-time operation, but we missed three months of income – about £80,000 – during the peak spring period, a very significant sum. To ameliorate this loss we have made significant savings by maximising the use of the furlough scheme, extremely tight economy and, sadly, losing some staff positions. Even so it looks as if we will be unexpectedly short by about £50,000 this year, a direct consequence of Covid-19.

Read more here

“We are delighted to announce that the newly refurbished Sports Club will reopen on Friday 21st August.
Appropriate Covid-19 safety measures will be in place.
We are also delighted to announce that all existing memberships have been extended, as a result of the impact of the closure due to Coronavirus, to April 2021.
Which also means that until April 2021 membership is free for new members who are most welcome. “

Paul Hogarth
Chairman
Slingsby Sports and Social Club