Something Does Not Feel Right

[Handstitched]

A'h yes, scammers don't just love them? 

NOT!!   I can see this thread filling up quickly with so many stories. 

The latest for me?  Business registration scams . I renew mine every 3 years through the proper channels, but yet , I've had two in the mail  since March and very " official looking " too ,asking to pay 2-3 times the proper fee . 

Always rely on your gut  

I love cash, as in folding money. It doesn't need batteries, or a good  signal or recharging,   and can't be hacked into , and  can still be used even when the power goes off.......AND  it doesn't bounce .

Cheques are being phased out here in Oz . 

HS 

[fredk]

3 minutes ago, Handstitched said:

I love cash, as in folding money. It doesn't need batteries, or a good  signal or recharging,   and can't be hacked into , and  can still be used even when the power goes off.......AND  it doesn't bounce .

ah, but one must be wary of forged bank notes too. Allegedly there are more forged £20 notes in UK circulation than there are real ones. And the same for 10p and £1 coins. My #1 son checks every note he gets in payment. He says he's never found a forged note but he's had a few customers change their minds and took back their cash before he could check it all.

One of the last scams I got was for a speeding ticket. I was caught speeding by a road-side camera in up-State New York. Pay now or be taken to court and then loose my licence. They kindly gave me a link to be able to pay. Very worrying as the last time I was in New York was for a few days about 13 years ago. Enforced lay-over because of flights. I don't remember speeding at all. I don't even remember having a car there.

 

[Handstitched]

3 minutes ago, fredk said:

ah, but one must be wary of forged bank notes too

So true.

 Here in Oz, and no doubt in the EU & UK ,  ' anti- forging technology' is getting better . Here they have even included braille tactile thingies on every note  with holograms and lots of micro micro....stuff  

HS

[fredk]

We use a coin for the £1. A couple of years ago the Royal Mint introduced a new one. Supposed to be un-forgeable. yeah, right, the first forgeries were detected less than a week after the new ones entered circulation. The forgeries use a different metal mix which makes them a fraction of a gram underweight, which is only detected by machines which recognise coins by their weight, but you or me or the shopping trolley can't tell the difference.

Yup, our bank notes have all those hologram thingies on them

[Aven]

1 hour ago, fredk said:

We use a coin for the £1. A couple of years ago the Royal Mint introduced a new one. Supposed to be un-forgeable. yeah, right, the first forgeries were detected less than a week after the new ones entered circulation. The forgeries use a different metal mix which makes them a fraction of a gram underweight, which is only detected by machines which recognise coins by their weight, but you or me or the shopping trolley can't tell the difference.

Yup, our bank notes have all those hologram thingies on them

What? Wait, you have to "rent" your shopping carts?  Wow, now there's a scam.  Do your pensioners get tokens?

[fredk]

24 minutes ago, Aven said:

What? Wait, you have to "rent" your shopping carts?  Wow, now there's a scam.  Do your pensioners get tokens?

Its ok. We use a £1 coin or a token the same size just to release the lock on the shopping trolley. Each trolley has a short chain which locks into another trolley when they are pushed together. We get the £1 or token back when we return the trolley to the trolley parking bay. Some shops use it to stop people stealing the trolleys. Some shops use a special wheel lock which automatically locks one or more of the trolley wheels if you take it too far from the shop.

[Aven]

That makes sense.  Stores have a hard time holding on to them here.  You see carts dumped all the time.  We went into a grocery store a while back and could not find a hand basket.  We said something to the cashier as we were checking out.  The manager happened to be near by and said that they were having more of an issue than usual.  She said they usually lose about 50 a week.  People just walk off with them.  I was stunned.

[fredk]

Our shops used to loose a lot of trolleys. Some were stolen, others, people just used them to take their shopping home and left the trolley laying about. But after the introduction of the lock people are too tight not to want their £1 back, or their cheap plastic trolley token

Sort-of back to the lead topic.

My #1 son had a case where a guy saw a car my son was selling listed on Gumtree. The guy phoned my son and arranged to buy the car. A couple of days later a guy calls and #1's garage. He's not the buyer. He's just delivering an envelope. In the envelope was 3/4 the price of the car, in cash. The verbal message with it is the buyer will call in about a week to pay the rest and collect the car.

The week goes by. No buyer. My son tries the phone number he has on record. Its no longer in use. Months go by. Still no buyer. Son has cash, car papers and a car, but no buyer. The buyer never gave his full name, just first name, never gave an address. My son puts the word out through the car clubs as this car is a specialist car. The buyer can't be traced, no one recognise him from what my son knew of him.

Jump 2 years on. Still no sign of the buyer so my son decides to sell the car again but he makes a note that if the buyer ever turns up he can claim his money back. Due to the nature of this specialist car guys buy it, use it for a while and then my son gets buying it back, fixes it and sells it again. He told me two weeks ago this car is back with him for the 4th time. But no-one has ever turned up and said -'thats my car'

PS. My son does some Church out-reach in our prisons (all two of them) and he's even asked in them if anyone, a newish prisoner, ever bought this car

Where's Sherlock Holmes when you need him?

 

[Handstitched]

12 hours ago, Aven said:

What? Wait, you have to "rent" your shopping carts?

Yep, same here in Oz . Mostly at the  major chain bottle shops ( liquor stores  ) 

@fredk  Thats quite a mystery .  Or, the other possibility , is that the buyer passed away  So without a last name or any other info, it will remain a mystery . 

HS

[chrisash]

In the UK it now seems cash is like offering corvid-19 to the seller, so most sales are by credit/ debit card, easier for most transactions but vast profits for Barclaycard, visa and the rest with their share of every transaction, and the Banks can now say there is no demand for coin's and stop holding them, close down and go all electronic with cash machines

Yet at the same time people in supermarkets paw through packs of food wrapped in film or cardboards to get the best  of the product think cold processed meats in sealed packages and that's safe

Confused