In which I attempt to be pragmatic. Are you allowed to run whatever computer program you want on the hardware you own? This is a question where freedom, practicality, and reality all collide into a mess. Google has recently announced that Android users will only be able to install apps which have been digitally signed by developers who have registered their name and other legal details with…
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Over the last few weeks, I've received several calls which all have the same modus operandi. A disembodied robotic voice tries to get me to connect on WhatsApp. https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/add-me-on-whatsapp.mp4 Some of the voices are reasonable facsimiles of human voices (like the above) and some are just garbage. 🔊 💾 Download this audio file. The voice cli…
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You receive a call on your phone. The polite call centre worker on the line asks for you by name, and gives the name of your bank. They say they're calling from your bank's fraud department. "Yeah, right!" You think. Obvious scam, isn't it? You tell the caller to do unmentionable things to a goat. They sigh. "I can assure you I'm calling from Chase bank. I understand you're sceptical. I'll…
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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 …
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I've just finished watching the amazing documentary "Jobfished". It tells the story of a group of people who were conned into working for a "fake" company. You can read the news article - it's pretty depressing stuff. In the middle of a pandemic, people were asked to work for what looked like an established media agency, for people who appeared to have a long history in the sector. The pay was…
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You've heard of the AI Winter, right? The period where funding for AI dried up due to products failing to meet their hype. I think we're now in Springtime For Crypto - named after the musical "Springtime for Hitler" from movie The Producers - where scams abound. You should take a couple of hours to watch The Producers. Either the 1967 classic movie, or the 2005 remake will do. The pivotal…
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Earlier this week, my holiday was interrupted by a sophisticated SMS scam. Rude! Let's take a look at it. Let's take a look at all the ways we can tell it is a scam. Firstly, and most obviously, I am not a customer of Lloyds Bank! But these scammers send out to multiple people hoping to catch victims. Secondly, I've not made a complaint to Lloyds! But, again, scammers know that plenty of…
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Many moons ago, when I was very young and you were even younger... London was in full bloom of tech-startups. I was running my own consultancy. Dashing from business to business, trying to pick up work as an expert in this new-fangled "Mobile Internet" thing. Some of the companies I worked with were great. Some of them went bust. And some were... just... ew! Digging through a box of files…
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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…
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(A hastily written and grumpy post.) Another day, another Blockchain Bullshit project. Someone "claimed" one of my Tweets and added it to the Blockchain. I'm not particularly happy about that. Nor am I happy with the hoops I had to jump through to contact the company and remove my work. You can read the whole sorry thread on Twitter. But, mostly, I'm unhappy with this whole scammy…
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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…
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Another day, another phone scam. Yesterday, I received a call from +442085044434 by someone trying to get me to "invest" in BitCoin and other Cryptocurrencies. I managed to drag the call out for 6 minutes - have a listen: 🔊 💾 Download this audio file. The caller admits the trading and advice isn't regulated. That they don't need permission to make marketing calls. And that Estonia is t…
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