Dusty's Frugal Fortnights Return!

dustydigger

Boy,am I sick of scam calls this last week. Anyone else had calls purportedly from Amazon,claiming that someone has ordered a very expensive iPad at my address. Do I know someone called Eric Thingymabob. Could I put my phone on speakerphone and we would work together to cancel the order?  Slammed the phone down because I have never had such a call in the 8 years I have been on Amazon. Apparently there is a massive outbeak of such calls around the country this month. The phone checking company ''Who Called Me'' have had over 2200 scam reports the last month,and people reporting are a tiny fraction of the real number of calls.

Adding insult to injury,the first 9 figures are identical to my own phone number,only the last 2 digits change.eg 93,54,46,95.At least the similarity makes it easy to recognize the calls are spam,and I dont need to answer.

One of the most annoying kind of call is when the number shows up as our town with only the last 4 digits unknown.You definitely think its just a local call from someone whose number you have forgotten. Grrrr

Katiehound

Assume if it's too good to be true such as refund that it's a scam
Assume if it's a bill for anything- it's a scam

try not to join in, unless of course you want to waste their time!

One friend joined in the conversation about windows & then finally said but I've already got double glazing. they were hopping as they were on about Microsoft Windows! of course he knew that.....

I recall the Amazon one I've often had is a recorded message- I just put the phone down ie cut off

If there's a person at the other end asking for me- chances are they haven't got my title right- I make out I am the housekeeper/ cleaner. Oh, I'll go and look for her. Leave phone to clock up their bill, after 5 minutes they have cut off..

if they are insistent tell them to put it in writing. Well, you've got all my details please send me the information. Phone gets slammed down by them!

Sayschezza

While waiting for my passport to be renewed I received 2 phone calls from a number 2 digits different to the passport office. Chap on other end saying I could be prosecuted if passport was illegally applied for. As I couldn't hear him properly i told him to try again. Emailed passport office after the first one just in case they had a dedicated phone number but they confirmed it was a scam. How did the scammers know? It couldn't have been a coincidence and since receiving my passport back I haven't been bothered again. Guess there might be a mole in the PO which is a bigger worry.

tooldle

Sayschezza said:

While waiting for my passport to be renewed I received 2 phone calls from a number 2 digits different to the passport office. Chap on other end saying I could be prosecuted if passport was illegally applied for. As I couldn't hear him properly i told him to try again. Emailed passport office after the first one just in case they had a dedicated phone number but they confirmed it was a scam. How did the scammers know? It couldn't have been a coincidence and since receiving my passport back I haven't been bothered again. Guess there might be a mole in the PO which is a bigger worry.

Given the vast numbers of people waiting on passports at the moment, it could be coincidence. My passport is in that queue. I'm sure i saw a figure of around 5 million, having delayed renewing their passport during the pandemic restrictions. Waiting time is currently 10 weeks. 

dustydigger

ISalute to Canada Challenge - An Amazing August in Yukon!

I promised yesterday to show you the final month of the Canadian Challenge. So Yukon here we come!





And now we’ve reached the end of our Canadian journey at our final stop, Yukon (aka Yukon Territory or the Yukon). It is the smallest and westernmost of Canada's three territories, and the second-least populated province or territory in Canada, with a population of 40,232 people as of the 2021 Census. Whitehorse, the territorial capital, is the largest settlement in any of the three territories. Yukon was split from the North-West Territories in 1898. Though officially bilingual (English and French), the Yukon government also recognizes First Nations languages.

At 5,959 m, Yukon's Mount Logan, in Kluane National Park and Reserve, is the highest mountain in Canada and the second-highest on the North American continent (after Denali in the U.S. state of Alaska). Most of the Yukon has a subarctic climate, characterized by long, cold winters and brief, warm summers. The territory is named after the Yukon River, the longest river in Yukon. The name itself is from a contraction of the words in the Gwich'in phrase chųų gąįį han, which means white water river and refers to "the pale colour" of glacial runoff in the Yukon River.

The Yukon's major industry is mining (lead, zinc, silver, gold, asbestos and copper). The government acquired the land from the Hudson's Bay Company in 1870 and split it from the Northwest Territories in 1898 to fill the need for local government created by the population influx of the gold rush. Thousands of these prospectors moved to the territory, ushering a period of Yukon history recorded by authors such as Robert W. Service and Jack London. The memory of this period and the early days of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, as well as the territory's scenic wonders and outdoor recreation opportunities, makes tourism the second most important industry in the territory.

The Yukon has a wide array of cultural and sporting events that attract artists, local residents, and tourists. Annual events include the Adäka Cultural Festival, Dawson City Music Festival, Yukon International Storytelling Festival, Yukon Quest dog sled race, Yukon Sourdough Rendezvous, as well as Klondike Gold Rush memorials, and the Northern Lights Centre. The Yukon's Aboriginal culture is also strongly reflected in such areas as winter sports, as in the Yukon Quest sled dog race. The modern comic-book character Yukon Jack depicts a heroic aboriginal persona.

Fun Facts about the Yukon:
• Mount Logan in Kluane National Park has the world’s largest circumference of any non-volcanic mountain around the base (20 km long and 5 km wide). It’s so large, Mount Kilimanjaro, the Eiger and Mont Blanc could fit on the summit plateau.

• The Great Klondike International Outhouse Race is one of the Yukon’s oldest running events and has been a Dawson City tradition since the 1970s. This is a wacky race where teams of five dress-up to complete challenges while pushing an ‘outhouse’ on wheels through the streets of Dawson City.

• The Signpost Forest at Watson Lake has one of the largest sign collections from around the world. At last count, there are about 100,000 signs, including original signs from Berlin, Moscow, Dublin and Hawaii. This quirky landmark was started by a homesick GI in 1942 and has become a famous attraction along the Alaska Highway.

• Around 100,000 people have drunk a Sourtoe Cocktail, which is a specialty of the Downtown Hotel in Dawson City. The alcoholic cocktail served with a mummified human toe is a tradition that began in the 1970s after riverboat captain !!!!!! Stevenson found a preserved toe in an old cabin. Those who drink the cocktail and ensure their lips touch the toe become a member of the Sourtoe Cocktail Club. Ewwwwww.

• The Yukon’s coat of arms features a malamute. The dog is standing on a snow mound above a shield, which has symbols that represent the Yukon River, gold and mountains.


The Yukon Challenge:

1. Read a book set in the Yukon OR Read a book featuring mining of any kind OR Read a book with something made of gold or gold colored on the cover.

2. Read a book set in the mountains OR Read a book with an alcoholic beverage in the title OR Read a book with a sign on the cover.

3. Read a book featuring a dog OR read a book in which a character participates in a race OR Read a book whose author’s first and last initials can be found in WHITEHORS promised yesterday that I would post the last month of the Canadian Challenge

Dusty's Yukon Challenge:

1. Read a book set in the Yukon : Pierre Berton - Drifting Home

2. Read a book with a sign on the cover: Roger Zelazny - Roadmarks

3. Read a book featuring a dog : Lyndon Stacey - No Going Back

dustydigger

Katiehound said:

Assume if it's too good to be true such as refund that it's a scam
Assume if it's a bill for anything- it's a scam

try not to join in, unless of course you want to waste their time!

One friend joined in the conversation about windows & then finally said but I've already got double glazing. they were hopping as they were on about Microsoft Windows! of course he knew that.....

I recall the Amazon one I've often had is a recorded message- I just put the phone down ie cut off

If there's a person at the other end asking for me- chances are they haven't got my title right- I make out I am the housekeeper/ cleaner. Oh, I'll go and look for her. Leave phone to clock up their bill, after 5 minutes they have cut off..

if they are insistent tell them to put it in writing. Well, you've got all my details please send me the information. Phone gets slammed down by them!

Back in 2014 TalkTalk was hacked,and we started getting calls from scammers who had all our details to hand,they could seem legit. For weeks we kept getting scam calls,and one day I was being solicted by a young man called Peter. I asked him,Peter, we both know this is all rubbish,why do you kept calling. And young Peter,very sweet and charming as always,replied - Madam you want to know why I am calling. You REALLY want to know why I am calling? You REALLY REALLY want to know why I am calling? Its because I REALLY REALLY want your money!

We both burst out laughing,and I never got any more calls for a long time.

Of course after that we had years of avalanches of calls,and it was no longer remotely funny

weenancyinAmerica

We get the same calls from Amazon here in the United States also. As soon as I hear the words Amazon, I hang up. I now hang up every time the clunk that starts robo-calls. Cuts way down on the number of people I talk to each day.

dustydigger

Something else not funny is Scottish Power,after literally MONTHS of silence they have been texting every few days for me to renew my fixed tariff,for which my payment would rise to a ridiculous £367 pm. Scrolling down past all that I found the info that from September my payment ,on variable tariff,be around £175. Of course they barely mention,and dont give figures for the enormous October costs,but working on 64% rise,I estimate that would bring the payment to £287 a month. Its still £80 a month less than SPs extortionate fixed rate price of £367.

Also nowhere do they mention my huge credit balance, now £417!. Taking that off alone would cut my payments by almost £35 a month.

Are they all dressed liked Ronald Macdonald up there at SP headquarters?Neve did find clowns funny........

beanielou

I am actally not sure where Sc Power are based.
It may be glasgow.

On another note when you get your asda delivery do they bring it into the house for you?
 

dustydigger

beanielou said:

I am actally not sure where Sc Power are based.
It may be glasgow.

On another note when you get your asda delivery do they bring it into the house for you?
 

No they bring trays to the door,and stick them one by one on the doorstep in some cases,but I always ask them to put a box on the unit by the door,and I move things on to all the other surfaces as quick as possible,and they leave rapidly leaving me with a place that looks like a bomb has dropped!