by Bill Cunningham
What I want for Christmas Please Santa
So far I have not spotted a Scamometer for sale for Christmas and if it existed then it would be a scam, not reaching us after pay-ment. If only we could input letters, emails, texts and voice mails to a box and it warned us by a flashing red LED if a scam detected. But in its absence we must be even more on guard against scammers this festive buying time. We’d like to believe in an incredibly low priced bargain for a present and maybe it’s worth the risk to send our money to get. But we really know, don’t we, that …..….. We know by now too about sending money to an unknown person . For banks keep asking us online if we really mean this. Transferring money from our bank account to this new re-cipient. Trusting it’s not a scam. If we still “push pay” the stranger regardless, and it all goes pear-shaped then there’s a 50:50 chance we’ll get refunded. Worth a punt? Even when we know paying by credit card offers much more protection? But it’s very close to the 25th and we’re pres-ently present-less. Too late to properly re-search the online seller. A very quick scan shows all 5 star ratings on the website and words by reviewers look somewhat similar. Even if the product de-served 5 stars there’s going to be someone saying don’t touch with bargepole. Still worth a punt? Maybe punting on the Thames is much safer than doing so online. And if we get, via social media, pointer to a bargain then we’d best talk to our friend, just to be certain it really was them who sent to our in box. Best if all boxes we opened on 25th contained the expected or a welcome surprise.