I was alerted to this scam by a relative who recently experienced it at our local Sainsbury’s. They had filled up their modest sized family car and queued to pay for their petrol, only to find it has already been paid for. Their bill which came to just over £30 had it seemed been paid by someone else who had given the wrong pump number. They had in fact filled up on another  pump with over £80 worth of diesel. Although they had paid for some of their fuel, they obviously got away with a massive discount.

It seems the trick is to look around for someone with a much smaller car than yours, make sure they are well behind you in the queue to pay and give their pump number instead paying for a much lower fuel bill. The other motorist is none the wiser until they come to pay for their fuel. They are not out of pocket because they can prove their vehicle is still parked in front of the pump. By the time it has been discovered, however, the other driver is long gone with a nice fuel discount. I’m not sure how common this practice this or whether it has been possible to track down the other driver, presumably it must be on cctv but it certainly is a clever trick and a sign that perhaps fuel prices are getting a bit too much to swallow.

According to this article Consumer Focus is calling for energy firms to abandon doorstep cold calls for a three month period. The watchdog is asking the energy firms to make the changes voluntarily but if they don’t may ask the regulator Ofgem to legally require suppliers to take action.

Personally I think all cold calling by energy companies should be stopped completely. The practice which has been going on for at least ten years often involves misleading and intimidating sales techniques. I have been subject to these sales calls on a number of occasions and remember one in particular where two large men tried to gain entry to my home to obtain an electricity bill or a meter reading. They had claimed to be from my existing provider but clearly were not. If this were the case they would have had details of my current price plan and energy usage and would not have needed further information. Needless to say I did not let these crooks into my house.

I have received a number of other calls since this one with less aggressive techniques but none the less still misleading. In each case the caller has said they are from my electricity provider rather than being honest and saying they are from a rival company. Being wise to this selling technique I greet them by letting them know that firstly I am aware they are not from my supplier. Secondly I am aware they are trying to get me to change my supplier and thirdly if I did want to switch I would not make this decision as a result of a cold call on my doorstep but would do my research online. This seems to get rid of the sales people very quickly and effectively. I do wonder, however, how many more vulnerable and perhaps less informed people are misled into switching to deals that are no better and can often be worse than their current rate. With four out of the big six suppliers being investigated to see whether their doorstep selling have broken the rules, it is clearly time to stamp this practice out once and for all.

If you are partial to a bottle of Jacobs Creek then you might want to check the label more carefully. According to this article there have been a number of cases of fake wine being sold under the label. The wine which comes from China has been sold to retailers for £2.00 a bottle. It does, however, contain inferior wine. The bottles which are sold for the same price as the genuine product often contains spelling mistakes in the small print on before the label so it might be worth reading the label more carefully before purchasing.

I was alerted to this scam when my mother received a phone call. The call was from what sounded like an Indian call centre and was someone claiming they worked for Microsoft. They told my mother that they were calling because they were aware she was having problems with her computer and that she had downloaded some malicious software. They wanted her to start up her computer so that they could look at it remotely. Luckily my mother was suspicious and told the caller she didn’t have time to deal with it. She then called me and to find out if it was genuine. Naturally my first point of call was to ask the mighty Google whether it was known scam and I quickly came across several articles relating to it including this one.

It seems the scam is to take control of a persons machine and install various software under the guise of removing some malicious software from the computer. They then take your credit card details and charge you for the remote support. I was surprised that this was the first time I have come across scam particularly as it appears to have targeted so many people. It seems many people are fooled by it because the caller often has details such as their address and sometimes even their account number from their broadband provider. There are also suspicions that this information is often being passed on from employees of some of these organisations. Its a scam that I don’t think would fool those such as myself that are fairly well informed but I would imagine people who don’t work in the IT industry could easily be caught out.

I receive anything up to 3,000 spam emails in a day so am always interested to see the latest trends. Recently it seems that the majority of my junk mail is made up of emails that look like they are from Amazon. Looking at my spam mail these tend to follow two formats. Either they ask you to confirm your log in details and direct you a page that looks like Amazon but judging by the web address is clearly not or they contain the subject line similar to “Thank you for setting the order No.538532” and include a zip file called track.zip.

According to this article due to volume of emails that are appearing Amazon have warned their customers to be wary of any emails asking them to check their accounts and only check the status of orders by first logging into the website not by clicking a link in an email. I find it interesting that people are fooled by these, as each of the emails I have received has contains a multitude of spelling mistakes, usually one of the first things that makes doubt the authenticity of the sender. The message once again is clear, don’t assume the sender is genuine and don’t click through and enter your details.

Wine lovers who thought they were investing in new age wine have been duped by a bogus scheme. They were offered what they thought was a chance to buy new age wine for £100 a bottle. The wine would then be kept for them for seven years whilst it matured and they would be sent regular updates on their purchase. In fact the scheme was completely fake and police have recently arrested six suspects who were running it from their homes in east London. Some would be investors are thought to have spent as much £100,000 on the scheme which targeted those on wine club marketing lists.

I get several thousand spam messages a day so tend to notice the latest trends. It seems that emails pretending to be from Facebook are becoming more popular at the moment and whilst other spam does still outnumber them, I am currently getting a few hundred a day. The emails tend to ask you to log in to update your details and do look like genuine Facebook emails so I can see how some people might be fooled. Bear in mind, though just as you would never click on an email to update an account or change details for a bank account the same applies to Facebook. I have noticed a number of people whose Facebook accounts have been compromised recently, I wonder whether its because they were fooled by one of these emails or whether their account was compromised by another method.

Back in November 2007 my bank account was compromised causing me all sorts of problems and meaning I had to cancel all my cards and have new ones issued. On that occasion I was alerted when I noticed some Paypal transactions which didn’t appear on my Paypal account but which had been debited from bank account. These were eventually refunded and once my news cards were issued everything was back to normal, until now.

I now find myself in the same situation, although the circumstances are slightly different. This time I was alerted to suspect transactions by a message left on my mobile phone by my bank and the fact that my card had been declined when I tried to use it. Being wary of the phone message I contacted my bank directly to find that they were investigating a case of fraudulent transactions made on my card and as part of this they had suspended my debit card. It appears someone used my card to make several small transactions, followed by a larger transaction to top up a mobile phone. Once again it appears the only solution is for the bank to issue new cards which will take up to seven days to arrive. In the meantime I am left wondering how this happened again. I was over cautious before when using my card online but since the last case of fraud have become somewhat paranoid. I can only assume that a website I use regularly has been compromised and is unaware that they have a security issue. I am now contemplating getting a pre-paid card for ordering online rather than risk compromising my bank account.

According to this article online fraud is at its highest ever level with seven out of ten internet users regularly seeing so called e-scams in their inboxes over the last twelve months. Around 80 per cent of users have received fake banking emails or fake online shopping emails. 70 per cent have been targeted by fake requests for money and 67 per cent have been told they have won a competition only to find out it is a scam. Personally I get so many of all of these types of emails that I automatically assume they are all fraudulent. If I ever did receive a genuine email from my bank or informing me I had won something it would be deleted along with the rest.

I read an article some time ago that suggested one in every 50 pound coins is a fake. This seems a lot but new figures from the Royal Mint suggest the problem is actually much worse and that the figure is more like one in every 20. It appears the current process of finding fake coins is not very accurate and only manages to find between 30 and 40% of the fakes because it errs on the side of caution rather than risk taking real coins out of circulation. Willings a company that tests coins collected from vending machines and car parks found that when they carried out a test on 2000 pounds coins between 3 and 4% were fake. Fake coins can be identified because the lettering on the side if often indistinct or in the wrong typeface.

Some stories that I come across take the biscuit, this one takes the whole tin. It’s about a family of four who say they are unable to work because they are too fat. What’s more they believe that the £22,000 they currently receive in benefits is not enough to live on. The family say "What we get barely covers the bills and puts food on the table. It's not our fault we can't work. We deserve more.” They were also quoted as saying "We have cereal for breakfast, bacon butties for lunch and microwave pies with mashed potato or chips for dinner" and "All that healthy food, like fruit and veg, is too expensive. We're fat because it's in our genes. Our whole family is overweight." Am I the only one who thinks perhaps the money barely covers the bills because they simply eat too much? Does it take a genius to figure out they might be overweight simply because they live on microwave pies and bacon butties? Equally the argument regarding fresh food is flawed, food is currently expensive but I have certainly learnt to economise whilst still eating a healthy diet.

This story is wrong on so many levels, the family obviously lack a basic understanding of why they are fat, that said I have nothing against people who are overweight. What I do have a problem with is people like this family that blame the problem on factors they believe are out of their control such as their genes, rather than going on a diet and following an exercise regime. In addition to this I find it difficult to believe that you would be unable to sit at a desk and work no matter how fat you happen to be. The fact that this family are responsible for their situation, expect the taxpayer to fund their lifestyle whilst giving nothing back in return and still have the gall to moan about it, really annoys me. There is no reason why they cannot get a job, why should the hardworking taxpayer fund this type of person?

Like me, many people will be facing a hefty payment to the tax man at the end of the month when the Self Assessment tax returns deadline approaches. One thing to look out for the moment, however, is fake emails claiming to be from the Inland Revenue telling you that you are due a rebate. Whilst it is all to tempting to believe that you are due to get some of your hard earned cash back these emails are simply a scam. They ask you to enter your bank or credit card details and the fraudsters then simply empty the bank account of funds. Other emails ask people to ring a phone number to leave their details. In this case the phone appears to keep ringing but callers are charged up to £6 a minute whilst they wait to get through. The emails is question contain the HMRC logo and come from addresses such as refundtax@hmrc.gov.uk and taxrefund@hmrc.gov.uk. All such emails should simply be ignored. It is also worth remembering that if you are owed a refund by the Inland Revenue they will only ever contact you in writing.

This article suggests that almost an eighth of the customers who order cod and chips from the chip shop actually end up eating haddock without realising it. Whilst haddock is equally tasty the one big difference is the price with cod costing around £16.17 per kg and haddock £11.63 per kg. An investigation conducted by the Food Standards Agency found that haddock was substituted in place of cod at around 12 per cent of chip shops, 10 per cent of pubs and 9 per cent of restaurants and that it was more common when cod prices were high. Whilst most people would find it hard to tell the difference between the two fish especially once they have been breaded or battered it seems wrong deliberately mislead customers, if you pay for cod then you should get cod.

Like many other people I have often thought about satisfying it would be to spend time tracking down spammers and killing them but have also wondered how much effect it would actually have. This article gave me new hope. According to the article after one company was closed down email spam dropped by 75%. The company McColo.com is believed to host some of the largest spam operations and has been turning a blind eye to a number of criminal organisation. Two major internet providers cut off internet access to the company last week in what has been called an unprecedented move. It is estimated that spam rates fell by up to 75% shortly after the company's servers were disconnected. Unfortunately the levels of spam have since picked up again as other spammers fill the void. This goes to show that my plan to track down spammers and kill them, could in theory be effective, now where can I buy a ninja outfit?

For the last few weeks the majority of the spam I have received has been Paris Hilton or Brittany Spears related so has been fairly easy to filter to my junk mail folder. I have noticed over the last couple of days a new spam trend. The email generally follows the format below and has a zip file attached to it. It tries to convince the recipient that malicious programs are being sent from their email address and threatens legal action if the matter is not resolved. I'm not sure what's in the zip file but I am guessing it is one of those malicious programs mentioned in the email.

-------------------------------

To Whom It May Concern:

I am tired of receiving messages containing malicious computer programs (viruses) from your e-mail address!!!

If within 1-2 days you do not stop sending messages to my e-mail address, I will have to address this issue to the Police!...

Today I received a hard copy of your data logs from my Internet service provider. The copy contains your IP address, logs of sending malicious programs and your e-mail address details...

I am sending you the copy of the document containing your data and logs of sending malicious programs as the proof of your fault!!!!!!

You must print the document containing the list of your data and logs of sending malicious programs and pass it on to your Internet service provider with, so that they could find out why the viruses are sent from your computer to my e-mail address!!!!

Ask your Internet service provider to resolve this problem!!!!

Do this now!!!

Once again!!! If you don?t stop sending the letters, I will address to the Police and file a lawsuit against you!!!

It comes as no surprise to read this article which suggests email phishing scams are up by 180%. The payments body APACS has reported that there have been 20,600 phishing incidents involving UK bank customers in the first six months of 2008 compared with only 7,200 in the same period in 2007. The most common scams seem to be emails that pretend to be from a bank requesting that you follow a link and enter your account number and password. It still amazes me that people get caught out by these scams, whilst the emails do sometimes look genuine, it is widely publicised by banks that they will never send an email asking for your account details or password. The message here is clear, if there is any doubt, don't click on it, just delete it. If your bank does really need to contact you, they have your address and phone number.

I notice that spam seems to come in waves. You seem to get one email followed in the next few days and weeks by thousands of similar ones. The latest wave seems to be these emails that try to convince you there is a parcel waiting for you at customs, such as the email below. I'm currently receiving around a hundred of these every day. I can't help wondering whether anyone actually believes that they do have a parcel to collect and responds to the email.

Dear Sirs,

We have received a parcel for you, sent from France on July 9. Please fill out the customs declaration attached to this message and send it to us by mail or fax. The address and the fax number are at the bottom of the declaration form.

Kind regards,

Your Customs Service

Newcastle City Council released the credit card details of around 54,000 people on the internet. The blunder happened when thousands of credit and debit card details were placed on an insecure server and were accessed by overseas computers. The details accessed include payment details for council tax, business rates, parking fines and rent. The Council has said that residents should monitor their bank statements to check for any unusual activity. That’s not very reassuring to the people whose accounts have been compromised.

I have noticed over the last month or so that most of the spam I get seems to contain simply a PDF attachment. I was wondering whether this was a new tactic designed to fool people into opening up a dodgy file. I came across this article today that claim spammers have stopped sending pictures in their emails and instead started attaching PDF’s. It appears that they are doing this to try and get around corporate spam filters. So far, it appears to be getting through my spam filter quite effectively with several hundred of these spam mails with PDF attachments arriving each day. Whilst my daily amount of spam mails continues to rise, I suppose one good thing about this latest trend is I don’t have to read about Viagra or penis enlargement unless I actually open the PDF.

I have been caught out in the past when my account has gone overdrawn by a few pounds and the bank has charged a lot of fees on the top increasing the debt dramatically. This article, however, highlights what I hope is an extreme case of unfair charges. The article talks about an HSBC account that went £5.60 overdrawn. In the first month £184 of charges were added to the account. In subsequent months amounts of £152 and £176 were also added, making the total debt more than £500. The bank said it wrote to the customer informing them of the problem but no letters were received until nearly four months later when the debt had mounted up. In this instance the bank did apologize although the article does not state whether the customer still had to pay the charges. It makes me wonder how many other people have been caught out by this tactic.

Some thieves who stole a keg of beer are likely to find they get very sick when they try to drink the loot. The keg had been put aside for the brewery to collect because the cask was faulty. It had been left open to the elements for several days before it was stolen. Drinking it is likely to cause severe vomiting, stomach cramps and diarrhoea. Perhaps these thieves might learn their lesson.

I have noticed recently a dramatic increase in the number of spam emails I get pretending to be from banks. With most of them it’s very easy to spot they are spam as I have never heard from the bank mentioned (usually an American bank), let alone have an account with them. Recently though the spammers seemed to have moved into targeting UK banks. I have received emails recently from Lloyds TSB and Alliance and Leicester and its interesting to see the spammers have been doing their homework. The emails fit exactly with the look and feel of the current websites and even include a disclaimer on the bottom about not divulging your banking details. I know that no UK banks would ever send you an email asking you to click on a link and re-enter your details. In addition, I am not fooled when directed to a website that looks like my banks website but has a completely different URL, however, I'm sure there must be people who do get caught out by the spam emails and end up divulging all of their account details. I have got to the stage where I automatically delete any emails claiming to be from a bank. If my bank did try to contact me by email, they wouldn’t have much luck, but then they do have my address and phone number if it’s important.

Orange have been criticised over its use of the term "unlimited" used in its advertising for broadband, because they do in fact limit customers to 40GB of monthly downloads and 1,000 minutes of calls. Whilst most customers are unlikely to use anything close to this download limit, it still seems to be false advertising to say there are no limits when they quite obviously are.

In a scam in Japan thousands of sheep were sold to unsuspecting customers who thought they had brought a poodle. The scam was only uncovered after one unhappy customer noticed her dog didn’t bark or eat dog food. After an investigation it turned out her dog was in fact a sheep.

A lamb.

It’s easy to assume when shopping with a well known company that your credit card details are kept safe. However the theft of 46 million credit card details from TK Maxx shows that even large companies may not keep your details secure. Personally when shopping online I prefer to use my Paypal account, if I am using a website for the first time, so that I don’t actually have to expose my card details. Like many people though I don’t think twice about using my credit card when shopping on the high street. It makes me wonder whether I should go back to withdrawing cash and avoid paying with my card altogether, or perhaps I am just getting paranoid about the whole thing?

As a regular user of Ebay I am well aware that I should avoid those sales where you get a "buy it now discount" if you contact the seller directly over email. This article on Ebay scams is useful reading for anyone using Ebay and shows how such scams work.