4
November
On-line
scams really are a pain in the backside for anyone who gets stung. We have
always thought that we would get stung by it, ha ha ha! Jan is on the phone now
to our bank about one that has been on-going since at least January this year.
The obvious first question that we be asked is, ‘Didn’t you notice it?’ Well,
no, we didn’t. The amounts involved are so small, from 99p up to £14.99 that we
just thought it was one of us. These are all Visa payments to Amazon Digital
download. This year alone we have lost just shy of £700. Jan has looked at last
the account for last years as well and it was happening then too. She also
looked at her Amazon account too, but none of these transactions have shown on
that account.
Now it
gets complicated. We do have two accounts, one for monthly payments in that
cover our direct debits, the other is our weekly account into which our pension
gets paid, that is the one that we use for our day to day spending and so on.
It’s the monthly account that is being raided. We both have access to the
weekly account but only Jan only has access to the monthly account, that’s how
we keep tabs on them. Jan reported this last week and then closed her Amazon
account, only to find that another payment came out on Monday for £3.99. When I
buy off Amazon I use the weekly card.
Jan now
has to sit and make a list of all these transactions and send them to the bank
so they can look into them and find out what is going on. So we are not losing
thousands of £s, but it is still high enough that it was beginning to make us
aware that something was going, confirmed by the debit of £3.99 on Monday. We
hear of the big scams when thousands of quid are taken and bank accounts are
emptied. But think about it a wee bit, and perhaps think of the money that
could be made by someone who scams a number of accounts in a similar way. That
would make a tidy living for some folks. Keeping to Amazon for now …
Jan has
come across a site where she gets free items as long as she tests and reviews
them. So far we’ve had around 15 items with that one. Some are good, some are
crap, as you would expect I suppose. Well, yesterday afternoon there’s a knock
on the door and go and answer it, and it is yet one more box from Amazon. It
wasn’t a large box as such, maybe 6x4x4 inches. Inside it was a load of brown
wrapping paper used as packing and a tiny little box about the size of a credit
card and around 1” deep, and it had an MP3 she is due to review. So it seems
that Amazon are not into saving resources then. And still with Amazon …
My books
were available on Amazon in kindle or print format. They haven’t been available
for some time now because I won’t, have actually be advised not to register for
tax in the USA. Not only that, it seems that if a print copy is wanted then it
can only be printed in the States and shipped over here. That increases the
cost a goodly amount and requires up to a month’s delay, not so good for a self-publisher.
If I want UK printing then Lulu is one to use and once I’ve tried them, I shall
close my Amazon CreateSpace account altogether.
And while
I’m talking books here – last time I was in Waterstones I bought Peter James
latest ghost novel, The House on Cold
Hill. At the same time I also bought another one they had on offer, We Have Always Lived in the Castle by
Shirley Jackson and is part of Penguin’s Modern Classics series. The copy write
for this one was in 1962; perhaps it should have left there, it really is crap.
I gave up on it after just five pages!
So now I
go look for a photo …
I love this one. I got in November 2008 when we lived in
Atherton. It’s also on the cover of my novel Web of Hate.
Today’s
funny …
Reaching the end of a job interview, the Human
Resources Officer asks a young engineer fresh out of the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology, "And what starting salary are you looking
for?" The engineer replies, "In the region of $125,000 a year,
depending on the benefits package." The interviewer inquires, "Well,
what would you say to a package of five weeks vacation, 14 paid holidays, full
medical and dental, company matching retirement fund to 50% of salary, and a
company car leased every two years, say, a red Corvette?" The engineer
sits up straight and says, "Wow! Are you kidding?" The interviewer
replies, "Yeah, but you started it."
No comments:
Post a Comment