TAKE CARE WITH PERSONAL DETAILS

We are going on holiday. I was sorting out DH’s mobile phone a account in a phone store. We had just given all our details to the staff, two of them, when he informed them we needed it sorted as we were going away in x weeks for x weeks!!

He got a bit of a telling off when we got out of the shop.
I don’t think he will do it again.

Slightly off at a tangent : had to give some personal details {CV} to apply for a volunteering position. Was appalled that other staff members quickly knew all my details, at which point I stopped going. But just before leaving, and not long after I had heard a colleague say "oh well all go through the files" had been asked to sign the Data Protection Act!!!

We were in a pub having lunch just before Christmas and a young man gave his name address and credit card number over the phone to someone. I honestly couldn’t believe it. Anyone with a pen and paper could easily have written down all his details or just typed them into their phone.

How about neighbours who ask you at top of their voice, in the street, about when are you going on holiday/how relative is who is in hospital (so leaving house empty!!) I know they are being friendly but no way do I want to advertise that a house will be empty to the world. I get strange looks when I have lowered my voice to an almost whisper to answer the question.

MawB Your story reminds me of something I saw on the internet (so it must be true ).

A man was on the train speaking very loudly on a mobile and obviously lying to his wife - saying he was working late etc. The young lady opposite fed up with listening to this shouted "For heavens sake put down that phone and come back to bed"

3nanny6 That’s a worrying story! I had thought that most people were familiar with ATM’s even older people and if they aren’t that’s an invitation for fraud if ever I heard one!

I was behind an elderly couple at an ATM machine (actually I am getting elderly myself) but I am only just starting to notice that. The man wanted to withdraw his money only his wife could not use the machine and also he was not too good at using it himself they were getting into a mess with it all and the machine was telling the man to put in his pin number but he did not know what to do.
I explained what the next step was but he still could not understand the concepts of putting in his pin and his wife asked me to finish off the transaction for them. I organised the pin for them and the mans money came out which |I told him to put in his wallet or his wifes handbag.
They thanked me so much for my help and off they went I could not help feeling that they could have asked anyone at that cash machine to help them as there are always people hanging around the car park as the machine was near the Sainsburys car park anyone could have got that money and run off still nothing bad happened and it was okay but if elderly people cannot use these machines they should be very careful.

To be honest, I have no sympathy for idiots like this. It is such basic knowledge to know better than to advertise personal details like this in public.

People could be just as stupid before mobile phones. Remember the show-offs who had loud conversations about their lives on trains and buses?

If people want to be this stupid. Let them live with the results. They have only themselves to blame.

Maw, you should be writing a novel! Think what you could develop from overhearing that conversation.
ALANaV, thanks for the warning. I am trying to review conversations I have had in public, but I think I can plead 'not guilty'. And I will confine myself to 'estimated time of arrival' and other such banalities.

I can remember sitting on a train opposite a man with a young (quite a bit younger than him) woman and he was on the phone to what sounded like his partner/wife from his side of the conversation.
All I can say is that he was lying in his teeth, he was not “stuck at the station” and from what it looked like, if he had had to work “late at the office”, well
There were quite a few raised eyebrows and smirks around the carriage

I think that's one of the problems of the mobile phone age, people make these private calls when they're out and about. How on earth did we manage when we only had phones at home?

My daughter heard a similar conversation on a train, so many people would have heard too. This girl sounded like she would be away, and left loads of info, including bank details!?

He was a plain clothed cop setting up a 'sting' for villains

He and his cohorts will be lying in wait and not sunning themselves on some foreign shore.

i once heard a man on a bus discussing financial matters. he was older guy, well dressed, and from conversation that he was quite well off. talked of moving money, overseas accounts, gave details of payment etc, and his ID. apart from fraud, it crossed my mind that someone could follow him home for purposes of robbery/ burglary.
I didn't have the confidence to alert him; some people can react very angrily, rude, abusive.
no good deed goes unpunished.
im still amazed that people generally open their font doors without knowing who is there.
even though I do it sometimes. and have got caught by people I would have avoided had I known. not dangerous, merely raucous unrelished intrusive, unsympatico acquaintances demanding attention, trying to force some interaction, unilaterally.

I think I might too Patsy. Unbelievable!

We're also careful about such things. I think if I'd overheard this I would have had a quiet word with him.