Resourcefulness: The budgeter's friend

Sun_Addict

At work our IT department send random people a bogus scam email to see if you fall for it. Some of them are quite difficult to spot. You have to report them and woe betide if you click on the link as they make you do a load of very boring training about scam emails 😐

Some of the ones I get to my personal email address and the odd text are so obviously a scam it’s unreal! 

badmemory

I have a friend who falls for them all.  Even the one she told me about first & I said don't touch it with a disinfected bargepole.  I used to worry but there isn't really any point as I can't stop her.

rtandon27

Haha - I've failed a few at work as well and got pulled up royally!  As a senior staff member I'm supposed to know better!

Personal ones mostly get caught by filters, but I also never click on a link without hovering first.  Coincidentally my mom messaged in a panic about a scam e-mail but at least she recognized it!  I'll do a screen share with her on the weekend and show her how to report it!  At least she asks what she should do!!!

QueenJess

Apologies as I’m so behind in reading your diary, but I wanted to report I tried out the fudge recipe you put on your diary ages ago to use in DS’s party bags.

The fudge didn’t seem anxious to thicken anytime soon and I had to get to a meeting, so I handed over your written instructions to my husband (who doesn’t bake and barely cooks) to finish it off. I ran downstairs after my meeting and it was all fine and tastes amazing. So thank you. Your instructions have been thoroughly tested and are idiot proof 🤣

Blackcats

This week scammers covered the pay for parking QR codes with their own QR codes at a few local car parks.  This meant people paid the scammers to park and not the council.  Apparently it looked very plausible and caught a few people before being sussed out.  If I paid for parking this way I reckon I'd have been caught out.  I much prefer using coins to pay although it annoys me when machines gobble up the money and can't give change or give extra minutes if you haven't got the right amount.

Suffolk_lass

I never click on a link in an email any more. I go to the website via bookmarks or google, ensuring it is the right one. They can be really sneaky with just a one letter difference, so after buying stamps that turned out to be counterfeit, I just never do now.

The one exception was this week, where I was on a waiting list and the named providers of the course had offered to run an additional session and I needed to click that specific link to be a priority booker, so I was 100% sure it was real

EssexHebridean

I'm really cautious about QR codes and if there is an alternate website address then I'll always use that instead in carparks - that covering over the codes with alternative ones has been doing the rounds for a while in various areas, I think - and it is SO plausible isn't it.  As others have said though, hovering over links and email addresses to see where things really send you/come from is a must. 

I love the idea of your hour a day on house stuff Foxgloves - I just can't face doing it! By the time we get home at 7 or even slightly later, then cook, and eat, it would just eat up an hour of what feels like the precious little time I have to just relax a bit, so I will have to continue with my usual "catch up when I can" approach! 

Spendywendywoo

Sun_Addict said:

At work our IT department send random people a bogus scam email to see if you fall for it. Some of them are quite difficult to spot. You have to report them and woe betide if you click on the link as they make you do a load of very boring training about scam emails 😐

Some of the ones I get to my personal email address and the odd text are so obviously a scam it’s unreal! 

Same here @Sun_Addict, thankfully I've never had to do the additional course but they are getting a lot more harder to recognise. 

Well done on spotting the scam, @f@foxgloves as you've said so many fall for it, it's awful x 

foxgloves

Thanks for all your comments & contributions. As I've said before, it's so much nicer than coming on here & yakking away to myself!
@ziggy2407 - I spotted that you have got the old 'Small Daily Things' thread up & running again! And that was some health update from yourself! I do hope you are taking it easy as far as you are able & that the horrid cold has now gone on its way.....or is at least about to do so x

@QheenJess- Glad the fudge recipe was useful. I might make some for my nephews for Easter. Yes, it does require quite a lot of boiling, more than I thought it would when I first made it, but if it hasn't been boiled to 'soft ball' stage when you test it, it just won't set, so it's worth allowing plenty of time.

@Blackcats - Yes, the QR code car parking scam is a fairly popular one here too. Our council parking machines take cards or cash but the card reader is the bit which often isn't working, so I expect if people don't have any coins (which we usually do), they might be lured into trying a conveniently placed QR code. The local council has put out regular warnings about this scam.

@EssexHebridean - No, I have to say I wouldn't have done a daily hour of cleaning/house jobs while I was still working either. I had a 40+ mile round trip commute so wasn't home till later, certainly not in any mood to start tackling chores. But since my VR, I do have time in the week so it is going to work for me, I think.

@Spendywendywoo - Yes, my recipe collection is being transferred from a big A4 lever arch binder to an A5 sized hardback notebook. The binder was too heavy & unwieldy. I bought 2 notebooks so I have a matching one when it is time to begin Volume 2.

@DawnW - I wish someone had kept my Nana's old recipe notebook. She had lived through hard times & was a good cook. Her Suffolk rusks & apple charlotte were legendary & no recipe that my sister or I have found elsewhere have ever been quite the same. She also made fab green tomato chutney. I do make this occasionally, but would have liked to have Nan's recipe. I suspect it was thrown out when her bungalow was sold. I do agree that it is the recipe sorting which is key. I have put all the ones I have cut out but never made into a plastic wallet for testing at some point. If they turn out to be things I will defo make again, then they will make it into my new notebook.

@PennysIntoPounds - Yes, it only takes a small % of people to fall for these scams to make it worthwhile for criminals to continue with them. You can tell so much just by analysing the text critically, but if on top of being gullible you also have little sense of what a formally laid-out communication should look & sound like, I suppose it adds to the likelihood of being taken in.

@rtandon27 - It was Epic Man Stew. 

F 

badmemory

Re the car park scams.  I find it interesting that some banks have trouble letting you spend your own money but do not seem to notice when someone is getting money into their bank account that is quite obviously from a scam.