When I say spam I don’t mean the canned cooked pork variety, that as a child in the 60’s, I remember having in a fritter for tea!! 🤣🤣 Back then for a large family, such as ours, they were deemed an exciting treat . How times have changed.

I am actually talking about the new scourge of intrusive spam that swamps our lives on a daily basis. 

I have always hoped that my blog brings a little light relief to your week, but having been a bit busy in the garden and a little slack on the blogging, I hadn’t realised that a glitch in the system had possibly seen my weekly ramblings as an interruption to your week and diverted your update emails into your spam folders! Fortunately, my webmaster (aka my brother) was ahead of the game and had fixed the glitch even before I contacted him. Sorry to anyone who thought I’d gone into hibernation, I was still here, just lurking around behind the scenes.

Its quite sad to know that little old me, has possibly been classed by your computer as spam.  There is nothing that makes my blood boil more than the constant bombardment of unsolicited, texts, phone calls, emails and certain blog comments.

Texts:

Like the one I received in the early hours of the morning, purportedly from Royal Mail, inviting me to click a link to pay a settlement fee before my parcel could be delivered. Firstly, although I have done a little too much internet shopping during lockdown, I was not expecting a parcel, and secondly I have previously had texts from Royal Mail, so as the number is already listed in my phone,  I was confident it was a scam and it was later confirmed by a tv news article.

Or the text my hubby received pretending to be from his mobile provider, stating his payment had failed & requesting he click on a link to update his account details. We maybe old but we’re not yet daft.

Please be aware and take a second look before you click on that link.

Phone Calls:

When the house phone rings, I know it’s going to be unsolicited, as no one I want to speak to has been given my recently changed land line number. (We all communicate via mobiles these days.)

However I often get calls from overseas callers, claiming to be from my internet provider, wanting to fix a problem by remotely taking control of my computer. . . . As if!!!

Strangely, when I advise them we have two families living in the house and ask the name of the person they are trying to contact, the line unexpectedly disconnects. Or like yesterday when she asked me how many devices I had connected. I suggested she should know that if she was from my provider. She offered 4 🤣🤣🤣🤣. In a household of 9!! I suggested she was a fraud & she disconnected.

Its happening so frequently, I may even give up making the effort to get up off the sofa to answer the phone.

I am also finding the number of calls I receive on a weekly basis to my mobile, is becoming more infuriating. If I don’t recognise the number I don’t answer. If it’s someone who really wants me they’ll leave a message. If no message, I use the website Who Called Me UK, to check if it is a known scam number. If so it’s blocked and deleted. but, much like the British  rain, they still they keep coming.

Emails:

There are many pros to internet shopping, (especially during lockdown) but the BIG downside is, these companies then feel they then have the right to fill your inbox with newsletters and marketing mail, whether you signed up or not. Sometimes it appears you inadvertently sign up just buy purchasing from them, and on the odd occasion, you cant complete your purchase without signing up. 😳 Upon receipt of the first mail, I hit the unsubscribe button, however it can take weeks and a filing cabinet full of unsolicited mail, before they act on your request.

How dare they invade my personal space. You don’t get the local shopkeeper or post master knocking on your door every day, just because you popped into their shop once to make a purchase, so what makes internet stores think they have the right to keep knocking on my inbox uninvited?

Blog comments:

Now you know I enjoy receiving and reading the lovely comments you leave after reading a blog post, but some I get take the biscuit. Fortunately when my lovely Brother set up my blog page for me, he cleverly installed an anti spam plug in, which diverts irrelevant comments to my spam box. Very useful as it prevents on average 20 a week, from inadvertently popping up on my blog.

Initially I had comments advocating the purchase of bitcoins, with lovely links (which remained unopened) to help me make thousands of pounds.

When they failed to entice me, I started getting links to finance companies and insurance brokers.

After they went in the virtual bin, the latest ones, offering me links to porn sites, started arriving . I’m hoping that none of my readers want me to lead the way to “sexy girl pics” or any other inappropriate site that may be on offer, so they are also discarded deep into cypher space.

I’m not sure where it will all end. It can be so infuriating, when you open up your inbox and excitedly, think ooh I have mail, or your phone pings or rings, only to find its yet another space invader, intruding on your life.

Please stay alert on the phone and keep your fingers poised on your devices.
 I don’t think we’ll ever be rid of these intrusions, but all I can say is “thank goodness for the delete button!”