A few days ago, I was just finishing my breakfast when I received a text purporting to come from my daughter. She had smashed her phone and needed me to contact her on another number via WhatsApp. I don’t use this app so it took me a while to set up. Then another message asked me to pay a bill for her. This bill was due that day, the end of the month, and she would pay me back tomorrow. This sense of urgency, and a desire to help your kids, stops you thinking rationally. Of course, I made the bank transfer. Fortunately for me, the payment for $3000+ was queried by Westpac and they held the funds. Wow, that was a close shave! In hindsight the scam depends on no voice communication between the parties.
This morning I’m at South Beach, out for breakfast and reading the paper. I came across this:
The newspaper article gave details about the huge number of recent scams, of various types, and reported that over 65’s were the most vulnerable. All this quite spoiled my breakfast, but the beach was nice:
This is something I’ve never seen before: a giant kite surfer holding two people, being towed by a boat. What next?
Even The Guardian is reporting the scams here
These scams are pulled off every minute, every second. I have a friend who uncannily spots them and plays to the end, until they hang up in disgust. I used to tell her one day she would screw up, somehow. Not I tell her they will send a hit man after her.
ReplyDeleteI feel like trying to get my revenge on these scammers (as in Jeffrey Archer's book "Not a penny less, not a penny more").
ReplyDelete