Like everything, the Internet has it good points and bad points. One of the latter is the ability to send out or forward hoax or fake emails warning of many bad things that have or are going to happen. The worst of all are the ones from friends that claim that you will receive bad luck if you do not send it on to 30 or so of your acquaintances. At least in the old days when a chain letter arrived you did not know who it was from. These email's are clearly all nonsense and should be ignored and/or deleted upon receipt.

One such despicable email I received some years ago had a poem attached allegedly written by a little girl who had cancer and that by forwarding on the email we had “a chance to save her”. The poem, it turned out was not written by her and it goes without saying that the chances of the email being forwarded on and saving her life were as likely as Elvis Presley still being alive. I cannot begin to imagine the people that began this email chain; maybe they really believed that they were doing some good. As for those that forwarded it on, I guess they thought they would do so just in case there was the slightest chance that the fact the implied that all emails were being tracked and the Cancer Association of America would make a donation based on the number of emails forwarded. This is not technically possible, but in these 'Big Brother' times I am sure it is being worked on.

Recently I have had a spate of emails claiming that if I forward them on I will receive a free laptop. Having checked on the Internet I discovered that this a hoax is 9 year-old!
As a general rule of thumb any email that starts “this is not a hoax” usually is. Before randomly sending these types of emails there are easy ways of checking their validity; typing a sentence of phrase from the email into Google or checking at web sites such as breakthechain.org or snopes.com.
Of course there are bad people in the world and we need to be on our guard against people trying to con or rob from us. Having a shop I get to speak to many people and have lost count of how many people have told me they have had either their bag stolen or items such as purses and cameras from their bags. The favourite methods seems to be snatching unattended bags from trolleys either inside the supermarket or in the car park. Similarly bags have been stolen from unattended cars whilst the owners have been taking the trolley back.

Speaking to my neighbours recently they told me of an attempt to rob them whilst they were in the car park at Leroy Merlin in Malaga. After leaving the store they began driving out of the car park closely followed by another car. The car was not driving correctly and before exiting the car park they got out and saw they had a flat tyre. The car that was behind them was now circling round the roundabout by the exit. Having previously heard of a scam where tyres are deliberately slashed they had the presence of mind to drive back to the store very close to the entrance to change the tyre. One of the occupants of the car that had been following them approached them and asked if they needed help. They replied that all was OK and under control and the car drove off. Seemingly the intention of the occupants of the car was to offer help and then rob them as there have been a number of such robberies using this method.

So being vigilant and bearing in mind that it could happen to you will help thwart the opportunist thief and think twice before forwarding those awful emails as you know full well that Bill Gates is not going to send you any free money. Or a laptop for that matter.

Andy Wilkes