Category: Announcements

‘Smishing scams’
We’ve been made aware of a scam text message targeting Barclays customers by directing them to a fake website. Here’s what you need to look out for.

Fake text messages posing as banks are nothing new – last year we saw a huge rise in the number of people reporting that they’ve received one purporting to be from Halifax.
But this one using Barclays to target victims features another twist to be wary of: it’s managed to successfully drop into people’s inboxes with the sender set as the bank itself:

These types of ‘phishing’ attempts work by rushing people into visiting a fake website, which can go on to request and steal sensitive information, such as bank details. In this case, its victims will be alarmed to read that an ‘unusual payee request’ has been ‘flagged’ on their account. Fortunately some web browsers, such as Chrome in the example below (in red) will warn you that the site is illegitimate: however, there’s no guarantee that everyone will receive a similar warning, and some may believe these convincing phishing sites to be genuine.

Phishing scam 2: ‘Lockdown support plan’ grants
Fake GOV UK communications continue to circulate, with a dodgy ‘lockdown support plan’ text now attempting to catch people out.

Once again fortunately most web browsers, such as Google Chrome in this example, will recognise that the URL is a phishing attempt and provide a warning.

Spotting and reporting phishing scams – what to do if you receive one. Report the fake text to the National Cyber Security Centre (report@phishing.gov.uk). Barclays and the other Banks also say that they will never send a text and ask you to click on a link. If you think you may have handed over your card details to scammers, you should let your bank know what’s happened immediately.

As we approach almost a year of varying levels of lockdown it prompted me to think about how that time has passed by. In some ways my perception is that it has passed quite quickly contrary to the often used expression ‘time flies when we are having fun’.

If so, then it may be because it seems faster compared to when we are bored and thus paying a lot of attention to the passage of time (remember ‘clockwatching at work’?). It is possible that our change of lifestyle to conform to the restrictions mean that to some extent we found ‘fun’ in some of the new things we have done? I’ve certainly enjoyed discovering some interesting local walks, cycle routes and increased reading time.

One theory contends that time speeds up as we get older if we consider the proportionality of time perception related to age. The older you get, the smaller one year is, as a percentage of your total life. So the years go by faster and faster. For young children Christmas and birthdays seem to take ages to come round again, not so for us older folk.

What has been missing is the mingling and social interaction with families, friends and in our u3a.Time will tell but optimistically once we get through the next few months things we have missed will start to return into everyday life.

Our February monthly meeting is a talk about ‘Poisons for Medicines’. I have seen it, found it very interesting and I do recommend it to you. There are more details later on this website.

David Rose

Scam News February 2021

There have been reported incidents of doorstep callers often referred to as ‘Nottingham Knockers’.

These individuals will offer household goods for sale, at inflated prices, but often this sale is a ruse for checking out a person’s home. They may claim to be on a rehabilitation scheme trying to find work and may have a false trading permit or some other kind of official-looking identification.

However, they are not part of any legitimate rehabilitation scheme. There is a Government-backed ‘Community Payback’ scheme for offenders who have been sentenced to carry out community work, but this does not involve door-to-door sales.

Please be vigilant when answering your door and do not feel compelled to enter into any conversation with them, if you do not wish to. If you have elderly friends, relatives or neighbours, it’s important to keep a lookout for them too and report any suspicious activity to police.

If you are concerned and wish to report any instances of this behaviour call 101. As always, if it is an emergency please call 999.

David Rose

Recycling Spectacles

Many of you have donated your unwanted old specs to a charity via member Terry Moult. Terry informs me that unfortunately the charity can no longer pass them on. However Specsavers and other opticians do accept unwanted pairs, broken or otherwise, so please recycle this way.

Driving Licence
Christine Vincent would like to share her recent experience and advises us to check our licence expiry dates (otherwise time in Wormwood Scrubs beckons….). She writes:

Just a thought! Whilst rummaging through my persnal effects I realised my driving licence had expired…….2 years ago. This was a shock to me and I was ashamed! However several of my friends have also had the same experience, including those who are really on the ball. I think the problem is that we have no reminder that we need to send off for another one. As no reminders go out to folk around our age do you think a mention in the Hucknall u3a newsletter would be in order?

And here is a useful link: Information can be found here:
https://www.theaa.com/driving-advice/driving-licence-renewal

David Rose