I read an article some time ago that suggested one in every 50 pound coins is a fake. This seems a lot but new figures from the Royal Mint suggest the problem is actually much worse and that the figure is more like one in every 20. It appears the current process of finding fake…
Category: Scams
Too Fat to Work: Solution Try Eating less
Some stories that I come across take the biscuit, this one takes the whole tin. It’s about a family of four who say they are unable to work because they are too fat. What’s more they believe that the £22,000 they currently receive in benefits is not enough to live on. The family say “What…
Self Assessment Tax Scam
Like me, many people will be facing a hefty payment to the tax man at the end of the month when the Self Assessment tax returns deadline approaches. One thing to look out for the moment, however, is fake emails claiming to be from the Inland Revenue telling you that you are due a rebate….
Fishy Business at the Chip Shop
This article suggests that almost an eighth of the customers who order cod and chips from the chip shop actually end up eating haddock without realising it. Whilst haddock is equally tasty the one big difference is the price with cod costing around £16.17 per kg and haddock £11.63 per kg. An investigation conducted by…
75% Drop in Spam After One Website is Closed
Like many other people I have often thought about satisfying it would be to spend time tracking down spammers and killing them but have also wondered how much effect it would actually have. This article gave me new hope. According to the article after one company was closed down email spam dropped by 75%. The…
Latest Spam Trend: I am Tired of Receiving Messages Containing Malicious Computer Programs
For the last few weeks the majority of the spam I have received has been Paris Hilton or Brittany Spears related so has been fairly easy to filter to my junk mail folder. I have noticed over the last couple of days a new spam trend. The email generally follows the format below and has…
Rise in Phishing Scams
It comes as no surprise to read this article which suggests email phishing scams are up by 180%. The payments body APACS has reported that there have been 20,600 phishing incidents involving UK bank customers in the first six months of 2008 compared with only 7,200 in the same period in 2007. The most common…
Your Parcel is at the Customs Office
I notice that spam seems to come in waves. You seem to get one email followed in the next few days and weeks by thousands of similar ones. The latest wave seems to be these emails that try to convince you there is a parcel waiting for you at customs, such as the email below….
Adwords Phishing Emails
It never fails to amaze me the amount of spam I get in my inbox. The latest thing seems to be these Google Adwords phishing emails. I’m currently getting between 20 and 50 of these a week and they do look remarkably similar to genuine emails from Google. The emails ask you to either reactivate…
Bank Account Compromised
I am always very careful when shopping online and tend to use Paypal rather than my debit card when visiting any unfamiliar websites. I was quite surprised then to find that my debit card has been compromised. On looking at my statements the other day I noticed a number of Paypal transactions which I had…