Scams – Well Eye Never

Lockdown Favourites – Weeks 9-12

Hello again, I hope you’re continuing to keep safe and well. It’s been a strange few weeks for me. It started with the loss of my uncle over the Bank Holiday weekend, although fortunately he didn’t have the virus, and my mother and I are hoping to go to the funeral to support my aunt if the rules allow. And then of course we’ve had the Dominic Cummings scandal, which I’m not going to rant about, suffice to say there’s been a major misjudgement of the public mood by him and the government, they’ve lost a lot of trust and goodwill.

On the plus side, however, our lockdown has been eased in various ways, including the re-opening of non-essential shops, the compulsory use of face coverings on public transport, and the partial re-opening of schools. But many scientists feel too much is being done too soon – and if the experts are wary then so am I, because I trust their judgement the most. So I’m happy to continue staying locked down, because I have no compelling reason to go out anyway, and my priority is still protecting Mum by not bringing the virus home.

Best wishes to my friends and followers in the USA as well, all our thoughts are with you right now. Black Lives Matter, and those taking advantage of peaceful protests to cause destruction and misery have no respect for peace and equality. I sincerely hope that stability and civility is restored very soon. We should all be pulling together at all times, but it’s more important than ever during this pandemic.

Anyway, apart from all that, I’m doing fine and have been quite productive, and I’ve continued to find lots of pleasant distractions. So let’s get into my latest post about what I’ve been enjoying, and there are accompanying videos for week 9, week 10 and weeks 11-12. Apart from the Def Leppard box set noted in the music section, nothing else is sponsored or gifted here, and all opinions are my own. So I hope you find it interesting!

Lockdown Favourites – Weeks 5-8

Hello again, hope you’re all keeping safe and well. We’ve now had nearly 3 months of lockdown, and this ‘new normal’ still feels surreal. It certainly puts everything in perspective, that a microscopic virus can temporarily shut down the entire planet in a matter of weeks. It’s a stark reminder of how powerful nature can be.

Everyone’s perception of time is rather weird at the moment too, with the weeks seeming to fly by, but that can be explained by science at least. Although, of course, it will be dragging much more slowly for those going through a particularly rough time at the moment, and you have my sympathies if that applies to you.

As I see it, the current small changes to our lockdown, as part of the government’s long term recovery plan, are basically urging people to use their common sense, as the virus is still circulating. We must continue to stay at home and work from home if at all possible, and obey the other safety rules. But provided we do so, we have a little bit more freedom now. So I hope people will continue to be careful and sensible, as we’re nowhere near out of the woods yet, but we’re getting there slowly. It’s a marathon, not a sprint. And obviously for disabled people things are more complicated, as Lucy Edwards has discussed with a couple of her fellow blind activists in a recent video.

As for me though, I’m still doing fine. I’ve been staying indoors to keep my elderly mother safe, but recently I went out for the first time in over 5 weeks, as a couple of essential items were missing from our online shopping delivery. So I was very pleased to find that there were hardly any people and very few cars about, and that I was able to use the priority hour for disabled people at the supermarket, which was fully stocked and had social distancing measures very well enforced. So my risk of exposure was hopefully minimal.

But otherwise I’m still staying at home, and I’ve continued to keep myself entertained in various ways. So here’s my latest recap of what I’ve been enjoying and discovering recently, along with videos summarising week 5, week 6, week 7 & week 8. As usual nothing is sponsored or gifted, and all opinions are my own. So I hope you enjoy!

February & March 2020 Favourites

Well, what a year this has turned out to be, huh? Perhaps we should just rename it 2019B or 2019.5 and start 2020 again next January. It’s like we’ve had a faulty software update in the calendar that needs serious debugging and virus-checking before it’s rolled out again.

Obviously I’m not dismissing the tragic side of things by saying that. My heart goes out to everybody who has lost loved ones or been severely affected in some other way, and I sincerely hope you all stay safe and well as best you can. Please follow the guidelines on hygiene, distancing, isolation, etc, because it really will save many lives. It will take a few weeks at least before we start seeing the impact of such measures, but they will help, and we will get through this. Huge thanks to all our incredible health and care staff, as well as the many other people providing essential products and services.

Beyond this introduction, I have no desire or intent to write posts about the situation, as it’s not nice and there’s enough about it online already. However, I have created a Covid Resources page, where you’ll find many links for information, advice and support, plus many ways to stay connected and entertained at home, which I hope you find useful.

Clearly this is going to change what I’m able to do and post about for a while. So in this post and video I want to wrap up my recent museum and theatre visits, as well as disability related updates and TV favourites, for both February and March. That way, I can move forward with a clean slate as I settle into a temporary new routine.

All of which means there’s a fair amount to cover here, making it a good distraction from everything that’s going on. I haven’t been sponsored or gifted by anyone to mention them, and all opinions are my own. So I hope you enjoy!

Scam Email – Apple Purchase

Time for one more quick scam email warning for this year, as I’ve just had one claiming that a transaction was made by someone other than myself on my Apple account. Again, the signs of fakery are easy enough to spot, but when people are spending lots of money this time of year, it’s a timely warning to be vigilant.

November 2019 Favourites

I seem to have gone from one extreme to another lately. After a relatively relaxed October, November has been really busy, and in a good way. I appeared on TV and radio to raise awareness of digital accessibility, promoted audio description at a trade exhibition, learnt a great deal about Ancient Greece, explored London’s illuminated bridges, highlighted more scam emails, bought some new Blu-rays and music, and enjoyed various things on TV.

So there’s plenty to cover this month, and I hope you enjoy this post and video summary of it all. As always, I haven’t received any gifts or payments by anyone mentioned in this post, and all opinions are my own.

Scam Email – Apple iCloud

Millions of people own Apple devices, so it’s inevitable that scammers will try to take advantage of that. I mentioned an iTunes scam last year, but even more common and dangerous are scams that try to access your iCloud account, and I’ve received one such email this week. It’s not the first and it won’t be the last.

Of course, Apple will never send out emails claiming your account information is incorrect. They also won’t use pop-up ads, phone calls or text messages of this nature either, which some scammers are also trying to do. So never give your details to anyone who contacts you out of the blue claiming there are issues with your iCloud account, and don’t click on any links they provide either.

If you are ever worried about your iCloud account’s security, change your Apple ID password immediately and contact Apple Support via their official website if you need further help. If you’ve given out any banking details, tell your bank as well. You should also report these emails to Apple by following the instructions on their Suspicious Emails page. I’ve included advice from Apple at the end of this post too, in case you think your Apple ID has been compromised.

So let’s get on to the email. As usual, it has clear giveaways as to how fake it is. If you’ve followed my scam posts before (and I notice they do get viewed very regularly), none of this will be new to you. But a reminder’s always good.

Scam Emails – Netflix Billing Problems

I’ve been getting a fair number of emails claiming to be from Netflix recently, telling me I have a problem with my account. It’s also blatantly obvious that they’re fake, so I’m not responding to them. But as the scammers are clearly desperate for attention, I’m only too happy to do a post highlighting their messages. Especially as they’re using a few sneaky little tactics to try and bypass spam filters and trick the human eye.

Scam Emails – Royal Mail Delivery

It’s time for another of my occasional series of scam warnings. And seeing as I’ve had 4 emails for this particular scam this week, it’s clear these criminals are desperate for attention. Indeed, Googling the message, I can find examples going back to January 2019 that others have received. The fact that it’s been going on for a while suggests that people might be falling for it, making it worth repeat attempts, which is a worry.

These people are basically pretending to be the Royal Mail, with the claim that a parcel couldn’t be delivered that you need to pay a charge for. They’re then asking you to click on a link, which is clearly dodgy, and I have no idea what lies behind it as I’m not going to click on it. But I’ll explain the emails that I’ve received so you’re aware.

Scam Email – TV Licence Warning

It’s time to add another message to my list of email scams. This is one that I received yesterday, and I know at least one of my Facebook friends has also received it.

This email threatens action if you don’t pay the overdue balance on your TV Licence, But it’s blatantly fake if you look out for the usual signs, including the From address, the link address they want you to click on, and the general wording of the email. So let’s check it out.

Scam Email – IMF Compensation

It’s time for my first scam awareness post of the new year, pointing out another con I’ve received that promises to give you lots of money that you didn’t know you were entitled to.

There are a lot of variations of this scam – where someone, completely out of the blue and completely unknown to you, is offering to transfer a huge sum of money into your bank account, either for safekeeping or because it’s some kind of reward. They’re always fake.

But this one particularly caught by eye because it tries to sound official by mentioning the International Monetary Fund (IMF), United Nations (UN) and the US Secret Service. But it’s clearly fake. However, there must be people falling for these things if the scammers feel it’s worth sending out. So it’s still worth taking a look to break it down a bit for those who find it useful.

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