Victoria Park
Coming back from Brands Hatch, I needed a walk and a visit to the loo, so what better place to do this than Victoria Park in Bow.
I got a short walk, but the toilets were closed, as that had probably been vandalised. So I had to leave.
I have many fond memories of Victoria Park. When we lived in the Barbican, our children used to go to school near the park and we’d take them for walks afterwards. Years later, my son lived with his wife near the park and we’d walk again and later with our granddaughter.
There used to be a lido, but that closed in 1990.
It is a park worth visiting. Remember that it is within walking distance of the 2012 Olympic site, so it will be a lovely place to take a picnic before going to the Games.
Lotus/TVR Meet at Brands Hatch
I went to a meet between Lotus and TVR owners at Brands Hatch this morning.
Here are the pictures.
It was a good morning. I did skip the drive and lunch afterwards though.
It was the first time I’d been to Brands Hatch for many years. I actually told the story of one visit to see the Guards Trophy in Brazilian Farce. The circuit has changed a lot and where we parked today, was where we sat on the grass all those years ago.
HMRC Fraud
There has been talk on the radio this morning and in the papers about various phishing attacks purporting to be tax refunds from HRMC.
Note that HMRC do not do refunds by e-mail, so any e-mails you get from them about refunds are fake and are designed to empty your bank account, after you have given them your bank details.
Here’s one I got earlier.
HMRC Spam E-Mail
These points should be noted.
- It is obviously spam, not least because my ISP has actually marked it as possible spam in the header.
- Bear in mind the fact too, that my accountant does my tax return and I think that HMRC don’t know my e-mail address.
- It is a good idea to learn how to read the Message Headers using your e-mail program. I use Outlook and this page in About.com tells you how to do it. In the headers for this e-mail, you can see there are lots of .br’s, which mean that at some point the e-mail has visited Brazil. Not the quickest route to Suffolk from the HMRC.
- They do show that the e-mail came to my standard e-mail address. Which means it wasn’t a genuine e-mail, as I use a special e-mail address for all financial transactions. Always use a different e-mail address for normal communications and financial transactions.
- The To: address in the e-mail is securemail@hmrc.gov.uk. Nearly all companies send important e-mails to the e-mail address you have given them.
- The value of the refund is shown as 988.50 GBP. I’m always suspicious of this, as the £ sign needed to show the value properly is not available on non-UK keyboards. About half of my genuine on line purchases use the £ sign and others use GBP. But phishing attacks nearly always use GBP.
- Click Here to submit you tax refund request. Note you instead of your. I know the HMRC can be stupid at times, but they don’t make spelling mistakes like this, as if they did, they would be a laughing stock in the tabloids.
- There are other grammatical errors and I don’t think the HMRC would use Best Regards.
You should always read these spam e-mails. That way, you will understand more and more what they look like and you won’t get caught out.
Reporting instructions for these sort of e-mails are on the HMRC web site.
The Anonymous Widower 