Britain Is Becoming Less Violent

According to this report on the BBC about a report from the Institute for Economics and Peace, Britain is becoming a less violent place.

On the other hand, you do get different perceptions from talking to people.  Several times, when I say to someone, as I did last Saturday, that I live in Hackney, there is a general view that it is an area with crime and rioting all the time, and a generally low standard of living.

Since, I’ve moved to this area, I’ve not seen anything the least bit violent, an aggressive dog or anything to worry about. There was the tragic incident round the corner, where a young girl was run over by a hit-and-run driver, but she got off a bus and ran behind it to cross the road without looking, despite the fact, there is a light-controlled crossing a few metres away. I don’t think we can put that down to the area, as this sort of incident happens everywhere.

I think there has been one case of housebreaking in the area, where someone went out and left a window open.  There was certainly more petty thieving when I lived in rural Suffolk, than this area of Hackney.

The only crime, that appears to be common, is the con artists, who come up with all sorts of non-violent scams.  I think, the fake gold ring trick, has been tried on me, about four times in the last year, but only once in the local area. Another time was actually outside Selfridges.

But then, there have always been scammers and let’s face it the Internet is full of them!

Fraudsters Are Targeting Wonga Customers

I have never used Wonga and I never will, but I received this e-mail supposedly from them this morning.

Customer Satisfaction Survey 2013

At Wonga.com, we sincerely value your opinions.
As part of our continuous improvement process, we’re conducting a survey to benchmark the opinions of our customers.

We will use the resulting information to better serve the needs of our customers.

We kindly ask you to take part in our quick and easy 3 questions customer survey. In return, we won’t charge you ANY INTEREST on your next loan application!

Here is how you proceed:
• Download your personal survey attached to this email.
• Select the desired answers on your survey.
• Log in to your Wonga.com account to validate your survey.
We thank you in advance for your time and effort in making Wonga the best payday lender in the United Kingdom.

Sincerely,
Wonga.com Customer Service
Message ID:

I wasn’t sure if it was phishing spam or something from the company, which has used one of my e-mail addresses.

So I did what you should always do with this type of message and used Google to search for “Wonga 2013 2013 customer satisfaction survey”

I found this page. So it’s a phish and of course fraudulent!

In some ways it’s rather ironic, that a rather dodgy company in my view, is being used as a hook by criminals to get mugs for their frauds.

A Pension Scam

I’ve also received a text message saying.

Hi, as you have a frozen pension, you can get a large cash payment within 4 weeks, to get it started today reply ‘CASH’ to this text.

It was unsigned. That told me it was a scam, as if my pension manager wants me urgently, he comes round on his bike, or gives me a call on the land-line.

The grammar is all wrong too.  one of the advantages of an education system, that no longer teaches how to form sentences correctly, is that it’s easier to spot frauds.

And my grammar isn’t perfect!

They Don’t Even Stop On Christmas Day

I’ve just had one of those silly job offer messages from a Chinese company called BMT Chemicals.

Our company BMTChemicals CC requires international payment receiving agents. If you are interested in this position please write back with your Full name, Address and Phone number for more information. 

I can only guess what will happen if I replied. It certainly wouldn’t be beneficial to me.

A Classic Phish

I received this today, purportedly from Vodafone.

Dear Customer,

You have a pending security update on your Vodafone account to protect you against online theft.

Kindly visit http://www.vodafone.co.uk/new_security/update/account.html

Regards

The Vodafone Team

It’s been well setup, but it does exactly what you think.  It points to a fake site and probably steals all of your details.

It actually points to a site called eadecom.net which is registered by Jose Canyellas Vila, who gave details of.

josep@senyal.com

LLuis Companys, 1 8-2
   Lleida 25003

It wouldn’t make any difference to me, as I’ve never had any account with Vodafone.

Nice one, Jose. All it meant that was your details are now with the guys with heavy boots and even heavier truncheons. You better get the toilet paper ready.  You’re going to need lots of it.

I’m not the first person to find Jose.  He’s mentioned on PhishTank.

Job Scam – Hyde Park Hotel Revisited

In February 2010, I put up a post called Job Scam – Hyde Park Hotel.  I’ve checked the hotel on Trip Advisor and there entry is here. it looks very little different to many hotels of this type in london.

My original post has since had a life of its own, if you look at the over a hundred comments on the site. And it is still regularly visited with page counts of

2010 – 1032

2011 – 541

2012 – 275

in the last three years.

It looks like the e-mails are starting to find mugs again, as I’ve had a couple of extra comments on the original post in the last couple of days.

This time though a figure of £210 is mentioned. So it’s obviously a worthwhile scam for those perpetrating it.

Do These Scams Still Work?

I got this e-mail today with a title of Heir Information.

Greetings, I am Norman Wong, Chief Auditor Hong Leong Bank. I got your contact email from an online directory; I would need your assistance in re-profiling funds belonging to my late client who shares similar surnames with you. Contact me on my private email for more detailed information.

Regards,

Norman Wong

I still get the occasional one, so sadly they must still bring in the odd mug. The e-mail actually came from Iran, although it may have been routed by South Africa. Could the Iranian connection, indicate it was sent more in hope than expectation? The spelling and grammar are good, which shows a certain level of education.

A Verified-By-Visa Scam

Moneywise is reporting a scam on that stupid so-called security system, Verified-by-Visa. I’ve never liked it.

I also only ever use my Visa card on the Internet, when I have no choice. But as the Olympics will be over soon, I shall probably be sticking my Visa card somewhere, where I’m not tempted to use it on-line.

It Must Be The Silly Season!

I’m getting masses of spam, trying to get me to join casinos. I haven’t seen it at this level for a couple of years.

They say there’s one born every minute, but it would appear that most of them are promoting on-line casinos. I suppose it could be due to a large number of unemployed kids, who’ve just left university and this is the only job they can get.

It’s so sad really.

Mobile Phone Insurance

I like this post from Moneywise, saying that mobile phone insurance is the next scam.

I don’t have it, as it would just cost too much to insure a Nokia 6310i