I’ve recently grown quite close to someone called Sherry, who informed me that she worked in TikTok’s human resources department.
I was a bit wary at first, but I really warmed to her when she offered me a job out of the blue.
Especially when I found out she was prepared to offer me £800 a day for just working part-time.
The whole process could not have been simpler.
Incredible really, but she told me they had done a complete appraisal of my suitability for such an important and lucrative position.
As a result I was “aligned perfectly with our requirements”.
Odd in a way as I had no knowledge of the appraisal; in fact, I had absolutely nothing to do with the process.
Anyway, this was recognition at last and thoroughly deserved; I’d always had a high opinion of myself (not always borne out by the facts, of course).
But perhaps it wasn’t quite what it seemed…
Of course it couldn’t be anything other than a complete scam sent by text to my mobile phone.
All I had to do was press an internet link in the text they provided and they would do the rest: fleece me of all my worldly goods, I suppose.
They appeared to be like so many others in a swamp of scammers where crime seems to pay – if the unwary or vulnerable among us don’t guard against it.
In these hard times, there are probably plenty of desperate people who might be tempted to press the button in the text to escape from a miserable existence or financial struggles.
Come to mention it, a desperate chap was spotted running down the stairs in a house not far from me in Aberdeen the other day.
The only problem was that it wasn’t his property, but someone else’s.
Shock incident showed me dangers of police 101 calls system
It was home to a female pensioner who was alone at the time.
She had been taking advantage of some sunny spring weather to potter about in her garden.
Suddenly she was distracted by an infirm elderly neighbour who needed help a few yards away, and left her open front door unattended for longer than she wished.
On her return, she started to climb her stairs – only to be confronted by an intruder rushing down.
How did my neighbour react when face to face with crook?
Can you imagine how frightening this scenario was for her trapped on the stairs with no escape?
She put on a brave face and challenged him; luckily, he seemed like a fairly affable robber – in that moment at least with someone harmless in front of him.
But clearly another scammer of sorts who came out with a stream of excuses often used by moronic criminal low-lifes.
He was “lost, in the wrong street, looking for someone called John – do you know him?”
A nice bit of deflection there – look like you are lost or confused and in need of a Good Samaritan.
He’d been “lost” in her bedroom, too, as it turned out.
Rounding off he asked,“do you sell cannabis?”; it would have been laughable nonsense if the situation wasn’t potentially dangerous.
Suddenly he was gone.
He’d been holding a coat around his middle – where he was presumably hiding several bottles of perfume stolen from her bedroom.
The usual do-gooders will tell us this chap needs help and sympathy: broken home, dysfunctional upbringing, in the grip of drug abuse etc.
But what about the victims? They are often sidelined.
So did my neighbour make police calls on 999 or 101?
I wonder now if she should have phoned 999.
After all, “suspicion of a crime in progress” is officially classed as a 999 call in police guidelines.
At least a patrol car would have scoured the area briefly to find someone matching his description.
He might have been already wanted by police for all we know.
The thing is, we’ll never know because she didn’t wish to cause any bother or get in the way of others with more urgent calls, and instead went down the Scottish police 101 route.
An easy mis-step as people have heard so often about how Police Scotland don’t investigate minor crime anymore.
Have you had trouble making 101 calls to the police? Let us know in our comments section below
‘I’ve never been a 101 fan’
The worry about that is some people with genuine grounds for an emergency call might be put off for fear they are wasting police time.
This unfortunate incident illustrates such a risk.
I’ve never been a 101 fan; I felt it existed as an unhelpful obstacle between public and police.
She tumbled into a bureaucratic abyss: knocked from pillar to post and forced online through a myriad of options by electronic prompting.
The ubiquitous “we are dealing with a heavy amount of calls at the moment” (code for we’ve cut back on staff) made an appearance.
After two long and fruitless calls to the police 101 line, without speaking to anyone, she gave up.
There is no record of the offence; crime apparently does pay for our intruder – and probably next time, too.
David Knight is the long-serving former deputy editor of The Press and Journal
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