Scams

Good for you Nanban, I've tried hard for the last few years,to be a better person and I like to think that it does work in the end! (Not perfect yet though!)

Well I thought I might just get the tiniest bit of good karma back again - nope, some rat had been and emptied out my poor horses water and they were absolutely desperate! Wouldn't it be lovely if everyone swapped a bad deed for a good one, what are the chances?

Unbelievable! What goes on in their heads?

I've always been of the opinion that you cant win a prize for something unless you actually enter a competition. So if someone tell you that you have 'won' something either over phone or on the net...be very suspicious.

In fact, never look a gift horse! The trouble is of course I knew that only too well but when this very annoying flashing thing covers your screen and won't go away until you fill it in, you may just do that to get rid! My youngest who is much more au fait than me of course, admitted to being caught himself recently by the very same sort of thing and there is a text number that you can use to block it. Obviously it must be a very common thing because the cure has been invented!

Also, beware of "Free Trial" offers ladies (usually for face creams or teeth whitening products), especially from the US. Often you have to open another page for their Terms and Conditions and a lot don't bother, so if you do order you'll have signed up for a continuous supply of the stuff and it's extremely hard to cancel!

I know this because I was taken in and had to change my card and everything - thankfully my bank was very helpful, but some aren't.

My sister-in-law was caught like this with a check your credit rating for free site. She had to fill in her credit card details but the site stated she could cancel after the free first month. She duly cancelled only to find they still kept debiting her credit card, no amount of phone calls could stop it. In the end she had to cancel the credit card.

Dont ask me how.........but you can stop 'pop-ups' we dont have them, but thats down to clever IT savy husband. Even a perfectly respectable e-mail from M&S got labeled 'highly suspitious' by all the extra security hes loaded on. Its certainly worth the trouble.

Oooh! That sounds clever Hilda. I'd be interested to know how he did that.

Aha! The computer scam - anybody seen the news about Groupon under investigation - and about time too.

Yes, saw it this morning. A few weeks ago, my son bought a coupon to have his oven cleaned and paid £20, then his neighbour mentioned the oven cleaning service that circulates their area, which charges the same all the time.

We know a photography studio that has been struggling in tis recession, and it was persuaded to offer portrait sittings on a Groupon voucher - they sold more than they could cope with, couldn't fulfil those commitments and have had to close. The people who purchased the vouchers will not get their photos done now.

Such a shame because there have been some genuinely good offers, but these scams getting on Groupon have brought down their reputation.

If anything looks too good to be true - it almost certainly is.
However, sometimes companies make expensive mistakes, such as Hoover offering free flights to the USA to anyone who spent £100 with them. It cost them millions as people rushed to buy items just over the limit and claim the flights. You have to get in early to benefit from such mistakes.

I unsubscribed from Groupon several months ago because they never seemed to me to be worthwhile. I was obviously right.

I know somebody who turned up at a beauty salon, to use their voucher, and the place had closed down and probably had been for some time.