PING!!! It’s about 4.00am and my mobile goes PING!! “We have difficulties delivering your package no. ......... due to unpaid shipping freight: .....” with a web address, presumably so I can sort it out. And pay somebody an unreasonable sum of money.
Now, I have not ordered anything for weeks. We don’t order a great deal of stuff. But imagine being the sort of person who orders things all the time, or someone who has ordered something special for a friend’s birthday or wedding or whatever. You receive that message and do a little panic and can’t remember what your order number is. So you go to the website and if you are lucky you just pay them a limited, but probably still unreasonable, sum of money. If you are unlucky, or foolish, they get your bank details and clear out your savings!
It’s not the first time I have had such a message. I’ve also heard of other people receiving them. It’s the latest scam! Fortunately most of the stuff I have ordered over the past year has communicated with me via email, so I usually have a record of the order number, only sending a text to confirm delivery time on the day of delivery. But a fair few people have been caught out.
I also received a text message about a supermarket delivery yesterday: “Out for delivery: Your Morrisons order will arrive from 2.00pm to 4.00pm.” Again with a web address. We had ordered nothing from Morrisons. Indeed, we have never ordered anything from Morrisons. No delivery materialised. I suspect somebody made a mistake giving their mobile number and the delivery people ended up with mine. However, I asked myself what I would do if the order turned up. Would I be honest and turn them away? Or would I assess the contents and decide to keep it? Probably the former. I am basically an honest person. Or at least concerned about embarrassment if found out!
My eldest granddaughter had a delivery from Tesco go to the wrong address, a house on a parallel street to hers. Tesco must have contacted her to confirm delivery or something and somehow she found out where it had gone. She met the delivery man at the mistaken address, where the residents were busily unpacking all her groceries!! These things happen!
In a bit of Covid irony, I read that the hospitality industry is facing a staffing crisis. Goodness! I thought there were people looking for work. “Pubs and restaurateurs agree that there is a particular challenge in the south-east of England and London as a lack of supply of skilled people from the EU, post-Brexit, is causing issues with hiring staff, especially in the kitchen.” So maybe it’s more Brexit irony than Covid irony.
The staff at the pub next door to our house seem to be very busy but there are plenty of them. There are times when the car park / garden restaurant is quite empty but that doesn’t happen often. How they will fare if the weathermen are right and the weather gets colder again remains to be seen. But soon they’ll be moving indoors again. We’ll see how that goes!
Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!
I got two pings like yours a couple of weeks ago. One was from Correos, the other from Federal Express. Aside from the fact that we had ordered nothing, they both had fishy-looking websites.
ReplyDelete