Nobody Panic - How to Spot a Scam

Episode Date: August 9, 2022

Tessa nearly became a criminal and Stevie got scammed by the same people twice. Here's what they learned and here's how you can avoid making the same mistakes. Also, crucially, how you shouldn't feel like a big idiot when it happens to you. Subscribe to the Nobody Panic Patreon at patreon.com/nobodypanicWant to support Nobody Panic? You can make a one-off donation at https://supporter.acast.com/nobodypanicRecorded by Ben Williams and edited by Clarissa Maycock for Plosive. Additional editing by Ben Williams. Photos by Marco Vittur, jingle by David Dobson.Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/nobodypanic. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hello, I'm Carriad. I'm Sarah. And we are the Weirdo's Book Club podcast. We are doing a very special live show as part of the London Podcast Festival. The date is Thursday, 11th of September. The time is 7pm and our special guest is the brilliant Alan Davies. Tickets from kingsplace.com. Single ladies, it's coming to London.

True on Saturday, the 13th of September. At the London Podcast Festival. The rumours are true. Saturday the 13th of September. At King's Place. Oh, that sounds like a date to me, Harriet. Lisa over there? Hello.

Today's... Hello. It's very tense. It is quite tense in here. It's a tense episode. It's a tense episode. Tense topic. We've also had a few around the houses.

A little bit of a free song. A little bit of a carcinque barge. This is broken up into two episodes. Yes. Because Stevie kept saying, but we've got to say what to do. And I was like, we are going to in the next episode. So I didn't understand what this episode is going to be.

And now we have discovered. So this episode is going to be called. how to spot a scam. We have recently discovered just now that after all this time producer Ben has a whole sound deck with building tunes. Can you believe it? I actually am so upset

that we haven't used this before. So over the next few episodes I mean this one I feel especially there'll be some sound effects. I guess I'm just out here all alone in this field. In the countryside. alone.

There they are. There we go. Or riding a bike with a squeaky wheel. Okay, so. Oh yeah, maybe it is that. Talking of scams. Anyway, it's about scams. We had a lovely email from somebody suggesting it.

We did. Cat. Thank you so much for your suggestion, Kat. We're going to start with the red flags. Sort of what a scam is. Things to look out for. And we're going to just, we're obviously going to get into it in the what to do if it has happened to you. But it goes without saying that if you are got by one of these things,

Don't beat yourself up. You're not stupid. You're not stupid. People try extremely hard to make these things and to actively trick, you know, get, they work very hard on human psychology and you got got because you're like, yeah, I'm just a regular guy. I love us all the concept of, because we will shortly explain times when we've been scammed. And I love the concept of being like, they just get you with the human psychology

because the simplicity with which I got scammed. But that's exactly what I'm saying is like. Essentially they were like, I'd like to scam you. And I said, yes. and then just got scound. Yes. That's the thing. I'm like a trusting naive lady. Okay.

What is the most adult thing you have done this week, Tessa? On the iPhone, in your emails, you can't attach a photograph. So if you needed to send something, you had to like, I had to go into my photos, then email it. And if I was on an email chain on my phone when someone was like, what do you mean? And I needed to attach the photo. I was like, God, this is tedious. And now I can't do this. You can't attach me.

It goes in line. It goes like in the actual email. Okay, Steve. Thank you so much. The adult thick is that for many years I just was like, well, can't be done. And then I thought to myself, no, there's no way it can't be done. It can, yeah. They've specifically made this thing for the phone.

For my life to be as easy as digitally possible. And I can't be the first person to have said, why can't you attach the photo? So then I googled how to attach photo to email. And it was just like, press this button. Yes. Press the attachment button that's the same as on your desktop email. No, no, no. It is. It is. It's a safety pin.

No. No. No. No. I'm going now. Look. No. If you're already in the email. Oh, your email is much bigger than mine. Yeah. Attempt. Oh, okay. All right? Hang on. Hang on. She's not wrong. She's not wrong. I don't understand. She's not wrong. It's not there, right? But when I do it, I've got literally an attachment button like that.

Oh, shit. Okay. Maybe it's because you've zoomed in quite big. Because my font is so big. She's made a font so big. It's actually bigger than my late grandma's font was and she was 92 and that's actually not a joke. That can't be why. I can't be being punished for my big font. I think you have been punished for a big font mate. Oh, what a shame. Anyway, yeah, there's a very simple attachment for anyone else listening. If anyone else is listening, you probably have the, I'll go try and the paper clip.

Yeah. But I don't have one. However, if you press in the body of the email, you can do anything you like. You can. So you press and hold the body of the email. Oh my God, yeah, you get a whole little menu of other things. come down along the bottom here. It also comes along the top here with this little arrow.

Oh, bugger. Anyway, I felt very, very good about that. And I only just discovering how to do it, but also the initiative to look it up. And because I just for such long time, it was like, well, can't be done. Simply can't be done. Find that really difficult to understand. The can't be done attitude. The concept of you thinking you can't attach a photo to an email in this, in the year of all-old, 2008.

Yeah, I know. It's baffling. I did it. But I got here eventually. I'm so glad. And welcome to the club. Thank you so much. Is that why you've been sending me home?

these photos. Relentless photos. Constant photograms. Yeah. And I feel very good about it. Well, mine's a very similar sort of thing because I've realized that you can pin WhatsApp conversations. So, for example, I miss WhatsApp in the family group quite a lot, especially also because

Gina's now in Australia, so she might be messaging at different times. And by the time I wake up, it's kind of gone quite far down. Whatever. So WhatsApp groups that you need to prioritize, maybe there's a wedding coming up and you've got to make sure that you don't miss updates on it or whether there's, whatever. you can pin it so it's always at the top. There's a little pin button, which is that was very helpful. So I've actually been using that.

Pin your WhatsApp? Yeah. I'd recommend Googling how to pin your WhatsApp conversations. Yeah. So, look, two actually, just two technological women just using their tech in a technological way. Wow, good for us. Good for us. Anyway, this is going to be mostly internet-based, because most of the things I've been phone-based

and some of it will be internet-based, these scams. And I think it's, do not be a shame that it's happened to you. Yes. Because thousands of years of human history, nothing but scams. Not them as scams. In Cape Van Times famously, they were just writing a scam on a rock. Throw a rock with someone else. They'd be like, yeah, it's my cow.

Oh, my God. I've been tricked again. Constantly. It's a tough thing, isn't it? Because you want to make people both street smart and aware and thinking, but not so much so that you become completely untrusting. Paranoid. And it's such a hard line.

I remember there is a, in fact, you pick a large, pick a large tourist attraction. The London Eye. No, no, something that you need to... Sorry, you're doing so well. I knew that. Something you need to climb up. The London Eye.

No. Like in another country. Eiffel Tower. No. Sorry, okay. The Berlin climbing wall. I don't know. Sorry, I'm making such a hard thing.

A large tourist attraction that you have to climb. But like... Airs rock. You can't climb up it now, but you could. Like a temple or something. Okay, a temple. Okay, yeah. I'm really sorry, I couldn't think where this one, I couldn't think where this story took place.

Incredible. The name of the last story's attraction. The love night, no. The Apple Tower, no. You've not guessed it, Chris. Sorry, keep going. You've not guessed it. Weirdly, I just hoped you would come up with it.

Okay, okay. Fine, did we do, did we come up with one? No. It's a temple somewhere. No, temple somewhere. So climb up, many, many steps up and it's a big tourist attraction. And at one of the steps, there is a big sign right over the top. So everybody sees it that says, beware of pickpockets.

Yes. So you're like, of course. Absolutely. What then happens is that everybody looks at the sign that says beware of pickpockets and automatically checks for their valuables. Yes. The people who are the pickpockets just quietly sit and watch people coming up the thing and pickp-p-and-be- They see where you pocket your stuff.

is and then they wait until you come back back down the other way and gently pickpocket you like when you've forgotten to be aware of it and they know where everything is and so I remember hearing about that and being like ah life ah life anyway I just think it's the just that we're so we're so susceptible and we're so trusting yeah also you know you see those signs saying beware of pickpockets and then if you get pickpocketed you still feel like an idiot But the sign's there because it's just happening. It just happens. Is it always you're aware?

And also the sign you, you know, you did an automatic thing that you couldn't control. Yeah. You know, people were actively lying in wait for you. The internet version would be, actually, I don't know what the internet version of that would be. The internet version would be like people saying, change your passwords to something more strong. And then you're just like publishing your passwords. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But it's an interesting point about like how, like it's really hard to foresee it and fully protect.

yourself without becoming some sort of paranoid person that looks at a sign saying pickbussing goes, no, don't touch anything and don't check anything. But also then leaves the place, you know? I think that's the epitome of it. It's like you don't want people to be like, I better not go anywhere or do anything or visit these amazing places. Well, have you been scammed online before? Well, so I've touched wood.

I've made it through so far online. But last week, I got rid of the oven. Right. Classic scam. Absolutely. Classic scam. Proper. A woman who doesn't understand what scamming is at all.

Tells the story about pickpockets. They're just about oven. No, okay. So I put it on gumtree and I put it up, but you have to put a price on gumtree. So I just put a pound. And I said, this is free. You're welcome to it.

It works. No gritty. fans broken. So basically oven is just hot or not. It's like an open fire. Yeah. Do you want this open fire? It's on.

And I was like, and it's got a gas ring. They work. I have it. Free oven. Anyway, then I get a message from Eva Grette Hoffman. Right. Okay. But the picture, okay, she's now gone and now it's just grey.

But when she arrived, the picture was just such a funny woman. Like it was such an epitome of like a middle age like boom. She could have been Eva Grette Hoffman could have been anyone's parent. Right. And she had this sort of curly hair and she was a little too close to the camera. And I was just like, God bless you, Eva Grette. Like I really was like, there she is. Take my oven. Take my oven, Eva Grette.

So the first thing she says is, hello, are you still selling? Question mark. And then it's a link to my gumtree oven. I say, hi. Yes, I am. She says, great. Sorry. I'm from Yovil.

Okay. No need to apologize. Eva Grette? No worries, Eva Grette, but I would like to buy your product. Can we use Gumbtree's Currier delivery service? I said, Yoville, good lord. I don't know gumtree courier. How does it work? Up until this point, I'm in with Eva Grette. Yeah. Nothing's crossed my mind. Gosh, I've got like tingles down my spine. Well, I'm reading it aloud. I'm obviously, and now I see it afresh, but when you just receive it from Eva Grette with the photo, you're like, none of this feels like it's leading to a scam. Oh, okay.

Yeah. I've got tingles down my spine because I know it is, but I don't know how. She just seems like a nice old lady. Right. Oh, great. Okay. Thank you so much. The very well-known courier service that I've not heard of either.

Exactly. So I say, I don't know. Gumtree courier, how does it work? So then she sends me a screenshot of a photograph. How Gumtree delivery works. And it looks very legit. It's got, it's three steps. It's got little great delivery rates.

Parcel tracking is standard. And it's got the Gumtree logo. It's got the Gumtree font. It's a screenshot of Gumtree. So she says, this is how it works. Can I organise delivery now, question mark. Then I'm still in. I say, okay, it's up three flights of stairs. Will the couriers come up and carry it down? She just says, yes. And this is the first point that I'm like,

no way. Like, no way are these couriers going to come up the stairs? Like, that weirdly for me was the red flag. Interesting. Okay. Because man with a van and those things, yeah, you have to pay extra for them to come and carry stuff, don't you? So that's the thing is it was the confidence with which she says, yes, it doesn't matter about the stairs. Whereas, just, just the, just because I live up these stairs, I'm so aware of how cross any delivery people, anyone who wants to come and get anything, like, the stairs for me are this like... It's the albatross around you neck. So the confidence with which she's like, yes, no problem is for me, weirdly the red flag.

Though then actually, if I then... Your next message is, this all sounds above board, Eva Grette. Let's go. I say, let's go, Eva Grette. So then I sort of go back a little bit and I realize it just says, Hello, are you still selling? Then it's the... She hasn't just said, are you still selling the oven?

She's actually, like, linked the link to the page, which is, like, not something people normally do on there. Then she's from YoVille, and she said, but I would like to buy your product, as opposed to saying,

like a blanket thing that she's sending to loads of people, maybe. And, like, not, not anything about the oven. And then, crucially, she's in Yoaville, and she wants to courier a non-working,

hot or not oven. Right. To Yovil. But it was... But that's the thing. Do you want that. I was like, nothing.

genuinely nothing was... That amiss, really. Was that amiss? Nothing's really flagging my balls. Sure, your balls have remained free of flag holes. So then I go on this screen that she sent me, and it's so legit looking. Like, the font, and I'm someone who really cares about font, like, they've got the font, the colours, the logo, everything is right. How gumtree delivery works, question mark.

Number one, the buyer finds a suitable product, completes and pays for the order. Two, the seller follows the link sent by the buyer and receives payment for his product. Three, within three days, the seller hands over the goods to the courier and we deliver it to the buyer. Genuinely, and God bless feminism 2022, the thing that was the red flag for me was sent by the buyer and receives payment for his product. I was like, you don't use language like his in this, you would say there. So I Google gumtree courier and the person that comes up with it's like scam in massive letters. Right. So what happens is that they say, I'm coming for the courier's coming, but in order to do this,

you have to follow the link that I'm going to send you to put your bank details in in order for me to pay you. There we go. So that's the point. God, but I think about, so obviously, you know, you're a savvy woman. I think I might have fallen for that, to be honest. I don't really read anything.

So I would have been like, I wouldn't have noticed the his thing. I might have Googled the curry thing. And also I think at the point when it was like put your bank details in, I hope that I didn't, but I might have done that. That is actually one I would have fallen for.

However, I think about things like my grandma, are to an extent sometimes my parents, like people who aren't maybe online as much or haven't been scammed as much as I have. And you think, well, that all sounds perfectly reasonable, you know. It's really, it's so tricky because if you fell for that, you'd feel like a fucking idiot. Yeah. But there's also nothing there to really tell you it's wrong. No, that's the thing. And her name's Eva Grech.

She got this nice picture of herself. Anyway, then I say, what is it exactly you're looking to buy? to be like, and what is it? And then she just says, your product. Then I say, I'm actually driving to Yovil this weekend. I'll deliver it to you. It goes grey. She disappears.

But had it been something expensive or a good oven that I was desperate to get rid of? And all she had to say is you're oven and you actually would have thought she was a real person? Right? 100%. If you're stressed and if, you're in it. Or money's involved, you're desperate to get a sale that you didn't think we're going to get. Maybe you're like moving flats and you should get rid of stuff because I think there's an element of like we all think that we're just going to be sat very rationally looking at things

and dealing with them on a case-by-case basis and then noticing these things. But actually you're doing stuff at the same time, you're not really focusing on them. Then the following week I put up some metal shelving. Yeah. It happens again. I mean, I don't get scammed, but once again, good-looking girl. Eva-Grette? Not Eva-Grette. Not Ev-a-Grot? That's right. It's Eva-Graught. I actually look at, this is her. Now this one. She's pretty fit. Also, like, that's the thing. That's believably a selfie. Like that's...

Oh yeah, someone has just taken that's... It's not like... It's not like... It's not like a watermark or anything. No, no. It's not like a magazine or like... A pen drawing. It's not a pen drawing of a woman.

Like, that's a selfie. Like, it's obviously way too good looking, you know? That's not true. I think that person could sell something on gum tray. Yeah. So here it is again with the... I mean, sorry, I don't mean she's... She's ugly enough to sell on gumtree. Well, I mean, is it fit people sell on gumtray?

I mean, case and point. Hello. Yeah, absolutely. My WhatsApp is a chicken. Yes, that is. And also, I would say, no one thinks that you're scamming them, because no one would put a chicken as the profile picture to scam. I'm the ultimate double bluff. I'm the ultimate red herring.

Okay. So is this ad's still up to date. And then it's the link again to the shelving. Now you're wise. Now I'm wise. Where'd you live, mate? Yoval. Yeah.

So this one to me is just, now I just say, yeah. Right? Oh, she's laid back. Yeah. Then she says, can you tell me if there are any shortcomings or if everything is fine? I say, ha ha ha ha ha. And I say, what kind of shortcomings? Maybe the rack is bent or incomplete.

And I was like, I want you to work for this scam. Thank you very much. So then I send a photo of it. I say, here it is. She says, I'm fine with that. Can you pack and deliver it the other day? I'm thinking of arranging a courier to pick it up at the address. Oh, I'm thinking.

I'm thinking of. And then I'll just need to contact DPD. Oh, okay. Now it's a legit courier service. Legit courier service now to throw us off the mark. And also, it's not Eva Greta again. Like this is totally new language. This is a new...

What's her name? Ashley. Oh, God. God, it's so realistic. So, right? Ashley's coming for me. Then I say, oh, right, where's your address? Where do you live?

Chipping on Gah, Essex. I look it up. That's the place. Of course. So is the oval, just to be clear. Right. Then I say, oh, great, I'm from there. Brilliant.

I'll drive it to you. She says, great, that would be amazing. My address is 11 Bose. drive. At which point I'm like, fuck, is this actually a woman? And now do I have to drive this thing to chipping ogne? I honestly believe this is a real woman. Yeah, right? So I'm like, oh shit. Then I said, I'm outside and then luckily it went great. But I up to that point, I was like, oh, fuck. You got to the point where you lied and said you were outside with a woman's oven on the off chunks, because what that really could have been a real one. Right. But this is the thing

about a scam. It's the first, she hasn't raised the gum tree courier yet. I've, I've, I've suggested I drive it. Yeah, you're scamming yourselves. So this is like how incredibly easy it is to fully know it as a scam and still be like, wait, but this time, are you legit? I feel like the real lesson of that story is, and this is to anybody doing essentially anything that you've not done before, obviously, it'd be mad to say to Google, you need to Google before you do it.

So like if it's a new app you've not been on, it's like a fully legit. legitimate app. If someone recommended something to do with that app, look it up. Like, because I've not used that app before. Because obviously, I don't mean like every time you like get a takeaway off the deliveroo app, Google it to check. There's not a scam happening. But what I mean is a new thing that you've not heard of before, that you go, oh, that's interesting. Don't listen to someone you don't know, explain something to you. Always check it on Google, regardless. And always put in Gumtree and Courier Service scam. So then if it is a scam, that will definitely go.

Because sometimes you have to like scroll through forums and shit. On Instagram or something, if someone's like selling, it's a website or I'm on a website, like, this feels a very good deal. Yes. Then I'll put the website name and then like reviews or the website name, scam. Yes. And then sometimes nothing comes up or even it will be like a website. No, it's legit.

It will be a forum. Yeah. Exactly that. Of other people having the same. And then you're like, oh, okay, great. I feel validated that I asked and it's all right. We can use this site. Yeah, Instagram shops definitely always check.

Like always just do it. If you've not ever shopped there before, always do. Because I've been scammed out of a detachable collar in Japan. So I still won't that three years later. I think the main thing, the first, like, the first red flag is, like, is this 2G, 2BT, too good to be true. Like, oh, I put this oven up and immediately somebody wants to come and collect it and take it off my hands and they want to get it like, oh, this is all working out magically. Not so, like, sometimes good things don't happen, but it's just be like, okay, flat. And then being like, huh, I've never heard of that before.

Like, number two flag. Of being like, oh, that's not a thing I've ever used. Not to say it isn't a thing. We're all learning. But like, is this, you know, an Instagram shop I've never heard of, a courier service I've never heard of? And then the biggest, the biggest flag of all should just be like, are my bank details going in somewhere? Yeah. Like, at what point am I being asked to put my bank details in?

And am I so clear on this website being, am I a thousand percent sure about this website? And I'm sure, I mean, I get cold call marketing things occasionally. Yeah, I get a lot of texts. So I've been getting texts pretending to be Royal Mail, saying that the parcels outside, we're trying to deliver your parcel. And then a link goes through to a website that looks like Royal Mail's website. And you're supposed to put in your username and password

or put in some details. I can't remember what the exact details are. It wasn't bank details. Otherwise, I would have done it. But I actually did it because it was like your address and something else. and I did it and then I didn't press submit and then I like threw my phone in the bin or something because I was so scared.

And what was the thing that made you stop? Because I realised as I was typing it in that the website, it looked exactly at the wrong my website but when you clicked on the other stuff nothing went to anything because it actually just looked like it. None of the menu bar actually worked and also I really couldn't think of anything I'd bought

I was like I don't think I'm waiting for anything but to be honest I do that every time the Amazon Man comes from like... If they said there was a post thing and it couldn't get to the door I'd be like, yeah? Yeah, fine. And so, oh, yeah, no, I'm sorry, the, the, the first thing that made me realize that then made me check the website was that the, it'd come from, so when you get a text from

Royal Mail, it says Royal Mail, it just, but this had come from like an 077 number. That's just, yeah, yeah, stupid of me to be like, oh yeah, but things I was doing something else at the time. And a thing comes in saying, this is Royal Mail and we're in, we're trusting people. Yeah. Everyone is. You're like, okay, you said you were. Yeah, I assume you are.

It's a, yeah, so, so difficult. But if it's a text message and it's from, it's like, it's like, it's like, it's like, like a number that you don't recognize, it's pretty much always going to be a scam, isn't it? Pretty much. And also like email addresses and things are like getting emails, open the pane and look at the actual email address you're getting it sent from and cross-reference.

Sometimes it will literally be like, 157, 3, 4-9, 4-time. And you're like, right, well, that's obviously not, you know, NatWest. But sometimes they've made it look like it is a NatWest email. But if you cross-reference it with the other actual emails that you've got from NatWest, you'll see that it isn't. But it's always basically, yeah, if you get an email, or a text or a phone call asking you to do pretty much anything that's like,

this is strange. It is strange, isn't it? Because if you've ever had actually had a legitimate bit of communication from your bank or the post or nothing rings weird, like it's always actually, you know, very non-confusing and straightforward. When I was just, I haven't thought about this in so long. But when we were students, so when I was in my second year, I got an email, I assumed everybody did.

And everyone else did least it because they're smarter than me to our, university email account. So not overnight, you're just your Gmail. But I think because it came through the university one, I was like, well, this is legit. And also, we weren't as hot on... We weren't as hot. We weren't as sexy.

We weren't as sexy back then. We didn't know. And it was like summer work. And I was like so unbelievably, like, desperate for money that I was like, yeah, fantastic. And it was like, we need you to do this like filing and accounting thing. And it knew that we were students.

And it knew, I think, the university. And you can do this thing from her. And I was like, oh my God, perfect. And it was like, we just need to send you, you get paid £100, but we need to send you a thousand pounds. You need to open an bank account at the Halifax and be sent this money. You need them withdraw it and send it in a Western Union account. Oh, my God. I got as far as opening an account at the Halifax.

Holy shit. Yeah. Yeah. Right. Did they stop? Did the Halifax flag it? They actually did. Yeah, luckily I missed the phone call on the morning that I was supposed to, like, they were like, now move the money or whatever.

So luckily they didn't. I'm criminals and you're like washing money. That's fully what I was doing. Yeah, that was a thousand something I was doing. I mean, I could have gone to jail. I mean, I probably would have got off of being like, the girls are moron. My defence would have been like, look at her. She doesn't know.

But like, yeah, I was, that's fully what I was doing. So I missed the call. I didn't do the thing. So I hadn't done it. And I guess I started to listen to my gut enough that was like, this doesn't feel. But then like a little while after that, I went to get the money out of my Halifax account

because I'm not a banker with Halifax. And they were like, oh, and they called me like into a private room and we're like, this account got shut down because we thought there was a money laundering attempt on it. Oh, wow. Oh, God. The mother was. But I missed the call.

I was asleep. Can I have my money and close the account and we say no more? And they were like, sure, you idiot. And I like gave me my coins and I left. If you're desperate as well, That's the thing. You're desperate for money and you need money and it's not an obvious thing. And you just think, oh my God, yes. But may I just offer you these? I got scammed a year ago.

And then I also got scammed six months ago, the exact same scam, exact same thing. Same product. Not the same product. Same product. Not the AirPods again. It was the AirPods. It was the AirPods. So about a year ago, I got scammed AirPods on Deep Up in my defense.

Actually, it was a bit longer than a year ago. We were in lockdown. I was watching some very stressful news headlines. Essentially what happened was Deepop is like a sort of eBay-ish kind of app thing. And everything goes through PayPal and you have buyer protection on. So there's that lag with PayPal, which is very nice. It's something dodgy going on. The money hasn't actually gone to the person so PayPal can then repay you.

If you're like, actually, it was a scam. And I remember finding these AirPods that were like 60 quid and being like, that is an incredible price of airports. So the new ones, I wasn't going to be the new ones. The new ones are like 350 pounds. The normal ones, I think at that point, like, $200. So I was like, this is great. Because I was angry that I had to pay, I didn't want to pay $200. But I was, it had, so I was like, I'm just going to use the wiry boys.

And I've got, I've passed that. I've passed it. I just, what are these drivers? I couldn't come back. And so I got, I messaged them saying, are these still available? They said yes. They said, the only thing is I've got to, and they gave an excuse like, I've got to pick, pick my kids up. And I don't have time to do something.

I sort of need the money like, now. and if you send me the money via buyers protection, it takes too long to clear, is it possible if you take buyers protection off and just send me the money directly? And I was like, literally took this amount of time, three seconds. In that three seconds, I thought,

the world's on fire. And you just got to trust people. And I literally thought that. I literally thought the words, sometimes, Stevie, you've just got to trust people. And then I sent them 60 pounds. They disappeared. The owner of the account came back and went,

did a blanket message to everyone going, so sorry, I think my account was taken. over by a scam, but I'm pretty sure everyone would be fine because it was so obvious. I was like, I was actually hit by it. And then felt totally stupid. Didn't tell The Shadow, my partner who I live with, nicknamed The Shadow, and didn't tell him because I was too embarrassed. Then six months later, I was on Deepop and saw some air pods for 85 pounds and thought,

that's too much to be a scam, but that's also a good enough deal for the Steve. Oh dear. Messaged him saying, offer is 85 pounds? Is that still available? They said absolutely yes. I'm having some problems with my bank. See, I turned off by a protection. I felt like I did it too quickly because I thought you can't get a scam twice. Believe people, Stevie. Believe people. Why you're so cynical?

Dispired. Same thing happened. So I'm again, message and said, someone else is taking my account over. So sorry if you've been hit by the scam, but they were only active for like, they must have only been out of like 10 minutes. so hopefully not. I was like, yeah, me again.

I've got scound again. Stevie. I'm starting to think it was the account that is doing it. And there was nothing in your gut that was like, buyers protection plus AirPods. My gut was screaming. My gut was like, if anything, vomiting. Right.

But I both times was like, the first time I honestly was like trust to people because it was a very bad time in the world newswise, as it is all the time. But it was especially bad. And I was also going a bit mad. Second time, I honestly did think in my head, the Lord wouldn't let me be scammed.

twice. But this is the same product. Surely not. Afterwards, the only way I could deal. Then I did tell my partner who was like, for God's sake. So I am, yeah, over £100. I'm scammed. What I'm saying is it's about listening to your gut. About listening to your gut. It's also about the fact that oddly, the way that they do it is mad and it sounds like I'm completely mad and you were completely mad for thinking that you would go and move some money from one bank to the next. Obviously it's not the right thing to do. obviously I knew the moment you take back, first tip of the entire episode are 40 minutes in, don't take bioprotection off. That is like, I've actually wrote it in the book.

Great. You literally wrote that. Yes, don't. But you literally wrote that to yourself. Yeah, yeah. And then that would have been two months later that I did it again and got scammed. So the Lord wouldn't let it happen. Because of the Lord.

The Lord will. Oh, I'm not a religious woman. That's why. That's why. So it's those moments when you go, ah, this is one of those moments. I'm sure it'll be fine. And in your head, the sentence, I'm sure it'll be fine, comes up. Yeah, great.

You've got to, the moment that sentence comes up, it's the same similar feeling to when I just go, nah, fuck it. Whenever I do that now, I'm like, no, you've said fuck it. That always means you're about to do something. Later, you'll go past Stevie, why did you fuck it? I'm sure it'll be fine. That's a red flag in itself. I'm sure it'll be fine.

You need to know it's fine. Text messages, the scammers, they can make it look like numbers like the thing that you trust. The emails can look like. they'll similar. They can take you to full websites that look like it. The thing is, is that if any business company that you deal with is asking you to do something

that they've never asked you to do before, always getting touch with the company, not the same email address, get in touch separately, Google it, get in touch with your bank, ask, so you need me to pay it? Sorry, I didn't think I had an overdraft. I'll pay it off, but can you explain why?

All those things. And also, any passwords, pin numbers, anything. If you've clicked on a link or you've not even maybe put your bank details in, but you've put your email address and you've set up an account, because often it will send you to a website and ask you to sign in. And then it now knows what your sign in is to the other thing. So then they'll just go in and log in.

Go and change all of your passwords for pretty much everything. If you feel like you may have been taken for a ride, because that is, you know, like if they're incredibly sophisticated, then they can literally get hold of like a million things. if they get in through one. Isn't like fishing, all they need is one thing, and then they're in. Somebody I knows the thing was that almost got involved in a scam,

like went to put details in, didn't. It was like, oh my God, I'm out of it. Call from the bank being like, we think there was a fortunate attempt. She was like, oh my God, yes, there was. Be like, okay, we're going to move your money across. We need you to, I'm sending you a link now. Oh my God, I just got shivray.

So that was, yeah. That was a scam. Yeah, it was a double, double. So that's the thing. Like, it's so fucking cruel. And incidentally, that story has a positive ending, which go all the money back. Great. It all did go, but it all came back.

Well, the next episode we're going to do about what to do. It's about what to do when it happened. And the first thing is say, like, do not beat yourself up. And also, like, so often with those things, you, the worst part is that sort of like, well, I'm sure it'll be fine. And then you're like, oh, no. And you're so cross with yourself because your gut was screaming along the way. Yes.

Because if, for example, it turned out that over many years, you. you'd been like scamming me out of my money, I'd be like, oh, well, if anything, well done, you know, I would be like, fair play to you. Fair play. I'd be like, I'd be nothing but thrilled, frankly. I'd be like, I'd have lots of emotions, but none of them would be that sick feeling of like, oh, I knew and I got got got. And so that's the thing that we've got to get better at being like, here are the flags, here's my gut, being sick, here's my like, oh, why am I putting my bed?

And any moment that you are, the moment you're sending the money or putting your bank details in, just be like, ask yourself a hundred times. like do I definitely need to be doing this? Can I check before I do this? Can I check? Please please please. Kat's got two good tips we should end on. One tip is get a password manager.

So there's one called Last Pass. And that for me is feels like, oh, what am I? Some sort of like web genius hacker person. I can't. That seems too much. No, it's not. It's actually very, very simple. There's another one called one password,

which I don't know is free. But last pass is definitely free. And essentially, this makes it more convenient because you don't have to remember your different passwords or enter credit card details because it works across all your devices. It creates strong passwords for you. It means you're never going to also have to do that thing. We're like, I've forgot my password.

And you have to like do one, pen in the ass. And then the other one, which I think is really helpful, which you can all do now. And I'm going to do it. In fact, when we finish this record, and so are you, Tessa. I've already done it. Brilliant. Check where your details have been leaked. You go to have I been P-W-N-E-D, like owned.

But with a P. With a P.com. I think it's cool. Pound. Anyway, I went there. You put in your email address. I mean, imagine if that's the scam. You put your new email and it gets you. We've been double, double got everywhere. We're heisting the heist. It's hell in here. And mine was, I had six. I had been a data breach. And it's not to necessarily say that anything has happened as a result. You're on a list. You've been late. You're on a list. You're on a sex predator list. But that is just your email and your password to that particular site have been sold on the dark web. Mine were Bittley, my fitness. pal, Tumblr, grinder. Oh, there we go. And the other three, I genuinely didn't recognize. And I was like, oh, let's have them.

Well, because you might look at it and go like, oh, that's fine. But if you're using the same email address for multiple accounts and the scammers will go through everything, at your bank, everything, because they'll go, maybe she uses the same password for everything. And God bless us all, we often do. We all do. So maybe think about switching up the password for stuff. You use a password manager. If they've got you, you're bitly, and you're like, who cares, I have my bitly details.

what if that is also your Amazon account, your bank details. Your only fans login, your only fans login, etc, etc. So listen to that gut, double check, cross-reference everything. If it is a legit thing and it's somebody messaging you and you say, I'm so sorry, I'm just going to take a moment to, you know, if you were selling something and somebody did that to you, you'd be like, of course, God bless, of course, check me out. You know, you wouldn't get cross.

If something appears that you're like, oh, I didn't know that Royal Mail did that. 2G, 2BT, check. Go on Google. Good to be true. Yes. And do not beat yourself up. Because we also, we want the thing to be true. We want things to be true.

We narratifies everything. And like, oh, wouldn't it be so great if I got those airbags for a five pounds? The Lord won't let it happen again. I mean, just remember that. The Lord will, okay? I was about to courier an oven to YoVille. Okay? If Eva Gret Hoffman can get me, she can get anyone.

She can anyone. And yeah, hopefully that is helpful. Please do email as Nobody Panic Podcast at gmail. if you, I was trying to fit some sort of scam thing in there, but I don't know how to do that. At nobody panic potter, any good gags about that? Unless you're a scammer, no. Wait, sorry, go and say it again. What, the email address?

No, just unless you're a joke. Okay, unless you're a scammer. That's perfect. Where was the drum beat for a joke? That was perfect. That was the one. Okay, great. And see you next week.

See you next week, everyone. Oh