There's an incredibly distressing story in the BBC about a vulnerable elderly man who was conned out of his life savings. Fraud victim gets surprise £153,000 refund despite rules BBC News In the story, the heartless bank refused to refund the fraud victim due to an absurd technicality - the money was sent to a foreign account rather than a UK account. Once again, big business bending the rules in order to protect their profits from a defenceless pensioner. Only after protests did they …
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The UK is facing an epidemic of SMS fraud. Scammers know that we're all at home eagerly waiting for deliveries. So they send out phishing messages saying "Sorry we missed you" or "You need to pay a delivery fee". If you click on the link they send, you'll go to a very convincing website which looks identical to the courier's page. Whereupon the fraudsters will ask for your bank details, credit card number, mother's maiden name, and inside leg measurement. There are many complex reasons why…
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Messaging app Signal is launching a payment service in the UK. This will allow users to send each other money cryptocurrency. Many people have written about why this is a daft idea. But they've mostly talked about why cryptocoins corrupt everything they touch. I want to talk about why this is a shitty idea from a product perspective. It all comes down to user needs. What pain point are you removing? Uber made taxis mildly less irritating, for example. But the UK already has a fairly mature…
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My mate Dom was moaning to his ISP on Twitter. They sent him a private message so they could look into his account. Blimey! Thankfully, that was a pretty brazen and inept attempt at phishing. Anyone asking for all your card details like that should set the alarm bells ringing. Of course, phishers often target credulous people who don't understand that they're being scammed. By sending an email that repels all but the most gullible the scammer gets the most promising marks to self-select, …
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Another day, another scam caller. Would you fall for this fraud? 🔊 💾 Download this audio file. You'd probably realise that this was a (crap) text-to-voice system and that the tax authorities are more likely to send a letter than a phone call. But not everyone is so switched-on. If you've not had many dealings with HMRC, would you know how they contact people? If you're on a noisy train and all you hear is "final warning.... legal action..." You can learn how to stay safe onlin…
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I recently read about an innovative telephone call scam. A scammer rings the mark and asks for her credit card details. If the mark refuses, the scammer tells her to hang up the phone, then dial 999 and ask for "Sergeant Scammer of the Fraud Squad". The mark does so, and is connected to what they assume is the emergency services. However, because the scammer hasn't hung up at their end, the call is still active. So the mark isn't speaking to 999, but to the scammer. Pretty devious. …
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