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Minor Strangeness (IHTM)

What kind of dogs? What size dogs?
I'm wondering if they get kidnapped for ransom (purebred), are stolen to use as "bait" :( for fighting dogs (mutt), or are getting eaten by wild animals (small dogs).

UK dog theft has increased massively, the dogs usually being stolen for resale.

With the increased demand for companion animals driven by “house arrest”, and the astronomical price increases for quality dogs from reputable sources, it was inevitable that criminals would step in to exploit the situation.

l am not aware of any actual instances of animals being stolen as “fighting dog bait”; l’d bet that it’s a UL, like the eternal “vivisectionists/ethnic restaurants” tales.

A Beeb item on dog theft:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-54372778

maximus otter
 
Most organisations will contact you by letter if it's a real 'money owing situation', as so many people never read their emails. HMRC ONLY contact you by letter - they don't have time for phone calls (and I'm not sure they have computers)...
Exactly, and this is what I point out to people, but still some fall for these scams. I make a point of not giving my email out to organisations, so that I instantly know when an email from these characters is a scam.
 
This week my phone rang, the display showed it was a UK mobile number not stored in my contacts.

I answered and a recorded message told them that there was a fraud attempt linked to my HMRC tax return, and that if I did not press "1" to speak to an advisor then I would be fined.

I immediately hung up and blocked the number, suspecting a "phishing" scam.

Oooooh, coincidence! My mobile rang this morning when I was around to pick it up - doesn't happen often - and I noted the incoming UK mobile number. As soon as I said "Hello?" and the recorded reply began "Hello, this is HMR..." I shut it off. It was only just 8am, man, these scammers get up early.
 
CAVEAT: Not recommended. Do not engage with scammers!

For anyone wanting to have some fun with a scammer, I have just looked up this info:

If your account is overseas


Bank identifier code (BIC)Account number (IBAN)Account name
BARCGB22GB62BARC20114770297690HMRC Cumbernauld
BARCGB22GB03BARC20114783977692HMRC Shipley

https://www.gov.uk/pay-self-assessment-tax-bill/bank-details

;)

maximus otter
 
a UK mobile number not stored in my contacts
Mostly the 'mobile' numbers used by scammers are shorter than usual by a single digit. You won't notice this when your mobile displays the number. I think they are generated by some sort of software linked to the phone system and are actually premium rate phone numbers.
If you think you had a missed call and phone back, or pick-up the call and follow the 'press 1' instructions, you will then be paying something like £3 a minute.
I recommend this site - it is very good.
You can check numbers to see if other people have been harassed etc, see where calls originate from, and report numbers yourself.
https://who-called.co.uk/
 
the timer beeps again and resets itself to 6.66
Have you checked the handbook to see if this is an error code, possibly to alert you to something that means it would be best to not use it until fixed?
(if you don't have the original handbook you can probably find an online version somewhere)
 
A discarded fridge on the street carries an ornamental sign saying "FRIDGE". With the quotes! This bothers me.
Why would one need a label on the fridge saying "FRIDGE"?
And would one also have ornamental labels for "DISHWASHER" and "DRYER"?
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When I was a kid in the 1960s I noticed many of the small charcoal grills known as hibachis had "HIBACHI" on the front, in large letters literally cast into the iron body of the thing. While some consumer products occasionally had boastful labels on them (e.g. "Pioneer AM-FM Stereo Surround Receiver") I couldn't think of another example of such obvious generic labeling. I later learned that what Americans call a hibachi is not really a hibachi in the Japanese sense of the word.

This week my phone rang, the display showed it was a UK mobile number not stored in my contacts.

I answered and a recorded message told them that there was a fraud attempt linked to my HMRC tax return, and that if I did not press "1" to speak to an advisor then I would be fined.

I immediately hung up and blocked the number, suspecting a "phishing" scam.
This is becoming a very common scam against American taxpayers, with the caller - who usually claims some vague attachment to the IRS - saying someone is on their way to arrest you if you don't go out right now and buy large amounts of gift cards (not checks or money orders) to pay off the debt. There are many recorded examples on YouTube, including some where the "victim" deliberately drags out the experience.
 
When I was a kid in the 1960s I noticed many of the small charcoal grills known as hibachis had "HIBACHI" on the front, in large letters literally cast into the iron body of the thing. While some consumer products occasionally had boastful labels on them (e.g. "Pioneer AM-FM Stereo Surround Receiver") I couldn't think of another example of such obvious generic labeling. I later learned that what Americans call a hibachi is not really a hibachi in the Japanese sense of the word.


This is becoming a very common scam against American taxpayers, with the caller - who usually claims some vague attachment to the IRS - saying someone is on their way to arrest you if you don't go out right now and buy large amounts of gift cards (not checks or money orders) to pay off the debt. There are many recorded examples on YouTube, including some where the "victim" deliberately drags out the experience.
I cannot even the imagine the IRS having that rather moderate level of communication system. They're still trying to replace their 20-year-old computer system. And they do everything in writing, I believe they are one of the few businesses still relying on faxes.
 
When I was a kid in the 1960s I noticed many of the small charcoal grills known as hibachis had "HIBACHI" on the front, in large letters literally cast into the iron body of the thing. While some consumer products occasionally had boastful labels on them (e.g. "Pioneer AM-FM Stereo Surround Receiver") I couldn't think of another example of such obvious generic labeling. I later learned that what Americans call a hibachi is not really a hibachi in the Japanese sense of the word.


This is becoming a very common scam against American taxpayers, with the caller - who usually claims some vague attachment to the IRS - saying someone is on their way to arrest you if you don't go out right now and buy large amounts of gift cards (not checks or money orders) to pay off the debt. There are many recorded examples on YouTube, including some where the "victim" deliberately drags out the experience.
It's very common in the UK as well, Ms Petes had this very call yesterday.


I can't imagine why anyone would believe a government agency or a real business would ask you to pay in gift cards!
Seems like the epitomy of ignorance! :crazy:

But the fact is that a lot of people are very trusting, and assume that the call is genuine. I had to laugh at a recent YouTube when one of these clever scammer winder uppers "bought" $10k worth of gift cards and then "cut them up" accidentally. The female scammer went apoplectic.
 
I can't imagine why anyone would believe a government agency or a real business would ask you to pay in gift cards!
Seems like the epitomy of ignorance! :crazy:
It's a classic con game, and as such depends on mind control techniques. Even when the actual scammer on the phone is not very talented, he or she is following instructions designed to get the victim to swallow the scam in tiny steps.

Years ago in New York's Penn Station, I was targeted for the classic pigeon drop scam. I was very familiar with it, having seen several TV news stories about it, yet it took me some time before I realized what was going on.
 
It's a classic con game, and as such depends on mind control techniques. Even when the actual scammer on the phone is not very talented, he or she is following instructions designed to get the victim to swallow the scam in tiny steps.

Years ago in New York's Penn Station, I was targeted for the classic pigeon drop scam. I was very familiar with it, having seen several TV news stories about it, yet it took me some time before I realized what was going on.

Anyone can be taken in. An Arthur Daley/Del Boy-type character of my acquaintance was once blagged into buying an expensive laptop that turned out to be a bag of potatoes, before my very eyes. :chuckle:
 
I knew a truck driver once (lets call him 'Dave') who was always getting bargains - usually while parked at 'truck stops', other drivers might have some items in their load that they were.....(cough cough)......'disposing of'.
One time he was massively conned though, when he purchased a brand new DVD player, still in it's original unopened box etc, for £30 (this was when they were the latest thing and would have cost a good couple of hundred quid).
The guy selling them even opened the box to show the item to 'Dave' and all seemed fine.
So anyway, when 'Dave' gets back to the yard and shows us his latest bargain, upon getting it out of the box and inspecting it, it was discovered to be a DVD-player-shaped-piece-of-wood with all the correct labels applied in all the right places though, also the remote control, and no plug or wires, or connection ports or anything.
Clearly someone had come into possession of all the labelling and packaging for the DVD players, and had then spent a bit of time cutting wood into the right size, painting it black, then labelling it and boxing it up.
 
I’ve just had a weird one. I work in Argos and they’ve been nagging us to make sure we are giving out feedback cards. I come back to my car which is at the far end of the Sainsbury’s car park to find one attached to my car. Stranger still the name on the card isn’t someone who works in our branch. It’s all very strange.
 

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Something really weird just happened here on this very site, i just recieved an alert and a reaction to a pm that i have no recolection of sending, it is an odd message and something i wouldnt send but its on my account im freaking out slightly :eek:
 
Now, I know Phil the Greek is in the hospital, and he's 99, so even sitting too close to an open window can be lethal at that age, but I'm sure he is receiving expert medical care.

But the thing that is troubling me is this - I'm absolutely certain that a short while before I went to bed last night, maybe around 1130, I was clicking through the channels and when I got to the BBC News channel, the female newscaster (who I couldn't really say seemed too familiar - one of those ones that 'usually works on Christmas day when no one else will' types) sombrely reported "Prince Phillip has passed away after a short illness, at the age of 99".
"Oh" I thought, "still he was 99, so I kind of thought he was going to cark it!".
And yet, no mention of it today. So I'm guessing he's still with us.
But also no mention of him now on the BBC news website, unless you dig around a bit, and the most recent item from yesterday about Charlie visiting him.
I woke up this morning ( 4th March) convinced that I had been told last night that it was on the later news that he had passed away.
 
Yesterday morning I was woken by a screechy noise and then the alarm rang so I thought the clock must have been playing up.
Later in the morning I heard a young male calling my name and I went to the door as the gardener, who also does next door,had said he would come to the door when he was ready to do my garden.
However he was nowhere to be seen and was still around the back of next door.
It was then that I decided to pick up the daily rubbish that blows down from one of the rental properties with multiple occupants and that I found the rabbit with its throat torn out and went to alert the owners from further down the court.
I haven't had my name called for years and I was wondering why now?
The people of the rabbit have many children and it looked like the property has become very run down.
Maybe I'm meant to help them in some way? I'll have to wait and see if an opportunity arises.
 
I knew a truck driver once (lets call him 'Dave') who was always getting bargains - usually while parked at 'truck stops', other drivers might have some items in their load that they were.....(cough cough)......'disposing of'.
One time he was massively conned though, when he purchased a brand new DVD player, still in it's original unopened box etc, for £30 (this was when they were the latest thing and would have cost a good couple of hundred quid).
The guy selling them even opened the box to show the item to 'Dave' and all seemed fine.
So anyway, when 'Dave' gets back to the yard and shows us his latest bargain, upon getting it out of the box and inspecting it, it was discovered to be a DVD-player-shaped-piece-of-wood with all the correct labels applied in all the right places though, also the remote control, and no plug or wires, or connection ports or anything.
Clearly someone had come into possession of all the labelling and packaging for the DVD players, and had then spent a bit of time cutting wood into the right size, painting it black, then labelling it and boxing it up.
Dave got a piece of ART instead of a DVD player! And a great story to go with it! :p
 
It was then that I decided to pick up the daily rubbish that blows down from one of the rental properties with multiple occupants and that I found the rabbit with its throat torn out and went to alert the owners from further down the court.

Possibly the screechy noise was the rabbit, when it was killed. A predator such as a fox would be the obvious killer, except they wouldn't have left the rabbit, unless chased off while or immediately after killing it. A neighbourhood cat or dog, maybe?

The disembodied voice feels in the vein of a vardoger.
 
But the fact is that a lot of people are very trusting, and assume that the call is genuine.
It's a classic con game, and as such depends on mind control techniques. Even when the actual scammer on the phone is not very talented, he or she is following instructions designed to get the victim to swallow the scam in tiny steps.
People also don't know how to, or don't take a moment to, analyze and assess new information from people they don't know!
 
It's very common in the UK as well, Ms Petes had this very call yesterday.




But the fact is that a lot of people are very trusting, and assume that the call is genuine. I had to laugh at a recent YouTube when one of these clever scammer winder uppers "bought" $10k worth of gift cards and then "cut them up" accidentally. The female scammer went apoplectic.
We had to ask questions if people we’re buying large amounts of iTunes vouchers when that was happening in the UK.
 
I can't imagine why anyone would believe a government agency or a real business would ask you to pay in gift cards!
Seems like the epitomy of ignorance! :crazy:

It is the combination of pressure and the provision of an easy way out (pay with vounchers you can buy virtually everywhere). Stick and carrot, oldest motivational trick in the proverbial book.

Sadly not everyone thinks things through, and even the most cautious person can be overwhelmed when under pressure. For a lot of people the embarrassment or fear of any kind of trouble is sufficient pressure to override whatever caution there is in their nature.
 
That's great - I'm glad that at least some companies are looking out for the vulnerable.:)
Our supermarket (and, therefore I assume all of them) have warning letters out the back and also we have to read and sign a directive that tells us to alert a superior if someone tries to buy a large number of gift cards and, if they are elderly, to ascertain why they want them. We've even got a fake 'scam' email printed out to show them if they query it.

And last night on Facebook, there was a message from someone from the next town over, saying that someone at the end of their road had been stabbed in the leg by someone wanting or trying to steal their dog whilst walking at 7.30 last night. There always seems to be a FOAF element in all of these tales though. Apart from Lady Gaga's dog walker (and that, I very much assume, was a targetted kidnapping with a large cash reward in line, rather than 'dog theft') I don't know anyone it's happened to In Real Life, although I keep getting warnings whenever I'm out with my dog, from people I meet (all of whom are known to me, it's a very unpopulated rural area.) Why the hell would anyone risk stealing MY dog, who's always out with me, when there are farm dogs running loose all over the place? One followed us on our run yesterday for three miles!
 
There's a lot of dog theft stories doing the rounds in these parts too. An elderly relative of my other half is frightened that her Labrador is at risk. I pointed out that the only dog thefts locally that have been reported in the media are of puppies and young dogs (1 year old pedigrees etc), not elderly greying Labradors. I don't blame her for being concerned though.
 
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