It could happen to you - online fraud - it happened to me

It was in the wee small hours of Sunday when the email came through from PayPal. It said that there was a payment that I needed to authorise. A money request in other words. 

Because I was exhausted and I had searched all over the PayPal site and couldn't find a phone number anywhere (seriously PayPal where the hell do you hide the contact details - if I had seen your number I would have phoned that instead and I wouldn't have almost been scammed), I stupidly phoned the number on the message (see photo) that was sent to my PayPal account. And so the scam was on..

It started with a Paypal money request 

Under the guise of being customer service at PayPal, I was put through a process of confirming my account which was very similar to checks I'd had before when I was the victim of fraud and contacted by the police. On that occasion, I had made a purchase from an online store and their receipts had been stolen during a break in - someone who worked in the shop had written down full card numbers with expiry dates and security codes. 

This time, I was asked for things like the last transaction date and amount paid. I was told this was to verify my Identity and so the customer service person I spoke to could find any other fraudulent activity on my account. According to him, there were half a dozen other payments on my account that looked suspect. Throughout this all, the person I was speaking to came across as professional and caring. He even gave me advice on how to avoid my phone being hacked in the future. 

Surprisingly, at no point was I asked for any password. Maybe they didn't ask for any log in details because they quite rightly thought I would be suspicious. 

It's a con

When I realised it, I wanted to hide away

I only realised I was being scammed when the man on the phone told me he had sent a request to my bank to cancel all of the past payments to a certain person in Germany.  To do this I had to log into my banking app. When I did that it was very clear to me that instead of helping me to cancel transactions he was trying to get me confused enough to authorise a transaction of over £700.

Feeling like a prized eejit (idiot) I hung up the phone and immediately signed into my banking app to cancel my card and have a new one sent out. I had been one step away from being conned by a fraudster. I was equally angry with myself and with the scam artist for trying to do that to me. 

Another example of a scam email

If this happens to you...

😱😱😱😱

STOP THEM GETTING YOUR MONEY

There's no point beating yourself up about it as it's happened. You need to take urgent action. PDQ. 

In my case, I stupidly gave them my debit card number which is linked to my main current account after they said they would need it to track all of the transactions I hadn't authorised. 

Thanks to the wonders of internet banking and apps I was able to cancel my card and have another one sent out to me in a matter of seconds. In the not so good old days, I would have had to wait until the bank opened on Monday to do that and run the risk of my card being used to run up a huge bill. But then, back in those days there was no PayPal and no one paid for things online so there was less chance of fraud.

Getting a new card meant my old card number would be useless to the fraudsters as they wouldn't have the expiry date and a security code needed to make any payment. 

I also have strong reason to believe that my Amazon account was hacked. In this case the one I opened in Australia so that I could track all my books on sale there. The financial details that the fraudster had all seemed to be in that account including two credit cards that were out of date a long time ago. 

To be on the safe side, I changed my Amazon password and PayPal password.

What I have learnt 

1. I have no doubt that the person I spoke to on the phone had at some point worked for a bank. He was articulate and knew the process banks put you through when you phone up to say your card has been lost, stolen, or misused. 

2. Most people have a PayPal account so you're just as likely for scammers to target that as you are your bank account.

3. Scammers make it sound as if they're doing you a favour. In my case, he claimed he was going to stop any unauthorised future transactions and past ones. He even advised me to use a VPN as he claimed my phone had been hacked. 

4. If something doesn't feel right, trust your intuition. Hang up that phone. 

5. Tell other people what happened so they can avoid it happening to them. It's us vs the scammers. 

Thanks to Mystery People & Dot Marshall-Gent for their review of Vile City

 Vile City got the review treatment in the latest edition of Mystery People.

Here's what reviwer Dot Marshall-Gent said -

"The contrasting viewpoints create a plot that is fast, forceful, and absorbing" - Vile City review from Dot Marshall-Gent

A new review for Vile City on Promoting Crime

"the writer creates two intriguing characters who often defy readers’ expectations."

Thursday, 15 September 2022

‘Detective in a Coma: Vile City’ by Jennifer Lee Thomson

Published by Diamond Books Ltd,
24 November 2021.
ISBN: 978-1-83840268-6 (PB)

When Detective Sergeant Stevie Campbell is assaulted on duty, he cheats death, but only just, and whilst he languishes in hospital, DS Brian McKeith has taken his place on Detective Inspector Waddell’s team.  McKeith has yet to impress his new boss who is wading through the in-tray from Hell that includes a spate of robberies as well as two missing women. To make matters worse, the new DS has just informed Waddell that another woman has disappeared.  This time, however, there is a witness.  Shelley’s boyfriend was also attacked, and the detectives are hoping that he might be able to give them a lead.

The third person narrative moves primarily between the perspectives of Waddell and Shelley, though other points of view are also related.  This juxtaposition creates an almost cinematographic feel to the story as it flips from the police investigation to the description of the imprisoned woman.  Waddell’s team must first determine whether there is a link between the women who have disappeared. Shelley on the other hand does not wait for the cavalry to arrive and makes a series of valiant attempts to escape her captives.  By foregrounding these two points of view, the writer creates two intriguing characters who often defy readers’ expectations.

The contrasting viewpoints create a plot that is fast, forceful, and absorbing. There are several scenes of brutality and some graphic depictions of sex trafficking, that are hard to read.  Crucially, though, the writer has provided female characters who are combative and resourceful.  There are also moments of poignancy.  For example, when Waddell visits Stevie in hospital he is clearly traumatised to see his erstwhile partner’s condition; sometimes he believes he is conversing with his old pal, and this causes him to doubt his sanity.  Similarly, Shelley’s valiant attempts to escape provoke empathy as well as admiration.

Detective in a Coma: Vile City is a tough Scottish thriller that explores the appalling trade in human beings.  It also examines how resilience and determination can carry us through the worst of times.  If gritty crime is your thing, you’ll enjoy this book.  I did, particularly the deliciously, dark twist at the end.
------
Reviewer: Dot Marshall-Gent

Jennifer Lee Thomson is an award-winning crime writer who has been scribbling away all her life. She also writes as Jenny Thomson and is an animal and human rights advocate.

Dot Marshall-Gent worked in the emergency services for twenty years first as a police officer, then as a paramedic and finally as a fire control officer before graduating from King’s College, London as a teacher of English in her mid-forties.  She completed a M.A. in Special and Inclusive Education at the Institute of Education, London and now teaches part-time and writes mainly about educational issues.  Dot sings jazz and country music and plays guitar, banjo and piano as well as being addicted to reading mystery and crime fiction.  

Thanks to Mystery People and Dot Marshall-Gent. You can check out the Mystery People website here

What happens after abducted Shelley Craig wakes up in Vile City?

What happens after Shelley Craig wakes up in Vile City after she's been abducted and her boyfriend left for dead? 

Here's an extract -

When Shelley came to, her throat was raw. Water. She needed water. With one hand, she groped for the glass she always kept on the bedside table.

Damn, it wasn’t there. Must have moved it.

She pulled herself into a sitting position. When she moved her head it was as though a part had broken off inside. She flopped back down. What had she done last night to get into this state? She hadn’t changed out of her work clothes; she was wearing her work trousers that pinched at her calves because Stuart hadn’t noticed the ‘dry clean only’ label and they’d shrunk in the wash.

Trying to dredge up the last thing she remembered made her head hurt. Her disorientation wasn’t helped by being unable to see properly because her eyes were stuck together by the glue of sleep. She must have forgotten to take her contact lenses out.

Wherever she was, it wasn’t at home. She was lying too low down and the place smelt of unwashed laundry and mould.

Maybe she was sleeping on some pal’s floor after one cocktail too many. That had to be it. Think, damn it, think.

When some light permeated the darkness, the jolt it gave her was a bolt of electricity to her brain.

Stuart. He’d been attacked. Was he okay?

A sob wracked her body as she forced herself to sit up. This wasn’t the time to get hysterical. She could do that later when she was safely at home.

She rubbed her eyes with her fingers, picking away the sleep until she could see clearly. 

She was on a bare mattress on top of a rusty old bed frame, in a strange room with torn wallpaper and flaking paint on the wall. The bed creaked whenever she moved and she wanted to tell it to shut the hell up. She didn’t want him to hear.

She remembered his voice in her ear, saying he’d kill Stuart unless she cooperated. Had he hurt him? That thought made her sob.

He’d know she was awake and then what would he do – rape her? She didn’t think he’d done it already. 

Surely, she’d be able to tell, wouldn’t she?

***TO BE CONTINUED***

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Vile City is available now 

Amazon UK https://www.amazon.co.uk/Detective-Coma-Jennifer-Lee-Thomson-ebook/dp/B09M3YNLL2

Amazon .com https://www.amazon.com/Detective-Coma-Jennifer-Lee-Thomson-ebook/dp/B09M3YNLL2

Amazon Canada https://www.amazon.can/Detective-Coma-Jennifer-Lee-Thomson-ebook/dp/B09M3YNLL2

Amazon Australia https://www.amazon.com.au/Detective-Coma-Jennifer-Lee-Thomson-ebook/dp/B09M3YNLL2

Making a Murderer - the Night Stalker

Are some people born evil?

The question is often asked whether the monsters who commit evil crimes are the product of nature, i.e they were born that way and nothing could have prevented their evil course, or nurture, i.e their life experiences shaped them into who they were. 

In the case of Richard Ramirez otherwise known as the Night Stalker, the subject of a gripping Netflix documentary outlining how he was caught, it would appear at first that he was born evil incarnate. 

Those who were raped, bludgeoned and stabbed and throttled by one of the most notorious serial killers to have ever scorched this earth, would probably say he was the devil. That the devil came to their homes. 

But on watching the Netflix documentary there were a few throwaway facts about Ramirez that were never fully explored, possibly because no one wanted to make any excuses for such a unapologetically sick killer. 

These facts that would point to Ramirez being the result of nurture, or in his case the lack of any decency in those who should have taken care of him.

Fact 1 - When Ramirez was just 12 years-old, his cousin Miguel (known as Mike) would show him pictures of war crimes he says he committed whilst in the US army. Those pictures are said to have included ones of a dead Vietnamese woman he raped. She'd been decapitated.

Could that be the source of Richard Ramirez's sick compulsion to rape and brutalise not just women but children? 

Could being shown such vile images at a young and impressionable age have led Ramirez to think that sex and violence were intrinsically linked snd resulted in him recreating the kind of brutality and inhumanity his uncle had shown his alleged victims? 

Fact 2 - The very same vile cousin Mike shot his wife in the face and killed her in front of the young Ramirez. 

Again, we have someone young and impressionable seeing someone he looked up to commit cold-blooded murder. A man who would smoke cannabis with the boy. 

Is there a possibility that had he not been shown any photographs or seen his cousin murder his wife, he wouldn't have gone on on to become one of them worst human beings to have ever lived? 

The answers is we will never really know. 

Lessons on breaking into homes 

Fact 3 - After his cousin killed his wife, Ramirez was sent to live with his sister and her husband. Her husband was a peeping tom and used to take Ramirez with him as he peeped on women. 

Is that how the man also known as the Walk-in Killer was able to sneak into his victims homes? Had he not been shown how to creep about undetected by his brother-in-law would he have been able to sneak up on his victims?

The making of a serial killer

If there was ever a set of circumstances that created a serial killer Ramirez's would be almost textbook. And that's before we even looked at his childhood brought up in a home with a violent father.

Whether Ramirez was made and not born a despicable human being, his being dead makes the city he held in the grips of fear, Los Angeles a much safer place. 

Thanks to Kim Basinger people know the truth about my agoraphobia

The actress recently revealed she has agoraphobia

‘Why do you have to be like this - you know you're just making things difficult for yourself?’

As someone with agoraphobia, I have heard that a lot. There's a misconception amongst some people - not everyone - that a phobia is just something you can easily get over. Just try facing up to your fear/s by doing some anti-sensitivity training. Force yourself to face up to whatever it is you fear whether that's spiders, heights, or in my case the fear of open spaces and people. Then your phobia will be gone. 

If only it were that easy. 

It seems that sometimes the only time some people acknowledge that you have a genuine health problem is when a celebrity has the same thing. In my case, Kim Basinger's recent revelation that she suffers from agoraphobia has shone the light on a condition that so many people have in the UK. According to the NHS, 2% of people in the UK have a panic disorder with a third of them having agoraphobia. 

When I was growing up in the 80s (I'm showing my age now) Kim Basinger was one of the best-known actresses. She was beautiful and had an amazing smile and a lot of women wanted to have hair like her. 

In recent years, she disappeared from public view. I thought she'd chosen to take time away from acting or had been the victim of Hollywood's ageism where leading men get to age whilst the women they star opposite get younger. I had no idea that this beautiful, outwardly self-confident woman had something in common with little old me, namely that she has agoraphobia.

That wasn't until recently when she appeared on Jada Pinkett's Red Table Talk with her daughter Ireland Baldwin to talk about the anxiety that left her struggling to leave her home. I found myself for the very first time in my life identifying with a beautiful Hollywood actress as she spoke about the paralysing anxiety.

I'm not a movie star (I wish) but I know exactly what she's going through. For over 20-years I have also suffered from agoraphobia and anxiety. I can leave my house but only if accompanied by other people or my rescue dog Harley, a huge goofy hound who is my untrained therapy dog. 

My therapy dog

On the very rare occasions I do try to venture out alone I am struck by a paralysing fear that sends me spiralling and I have to get home. I struggle to breathe and feel as if I'm having an asthma attack that no medication can help with. My heart is pounding and my chest feels fit to burst. A friend who witnessed this once thought I was having the worst panic attack should have ever seen. She was so worried she wanted to call an ambulance. 

Basinger says her anxiety was triggered when she visited a health food store in California and was overcome by overwhelming anxiety that caused her to flee the store. 

What started it all

In my case, I know exactly what the trigger was but not when - the bullying I suffered at school and home during my teenage years. Unlike the Oscar-winning actress, I can't pinpoint one single event that caused it, just a multiple series of events that eroded my confidence and feeling of self-worth. I became scared to go out. 

Agoraphobia is much misunderstood. I've had some people tell me I should just pull myself together as if I have chosen to be this way. Relatives have also told me just to dope myself up with medication so I can attend family events. Again, they don't understand. It's not as if I don't want to go out, it's that I can't. 

I have tried therapy, both cognitive-behavioural research and hypnotherapy (I wasn't very good at getting hypnotised apparently), meditation and reading various self-help books but nothing has helped. I can also confirm that the drugs don't work - at least for me. I've been on various medications for years and there's no change. 

For me, the cognitive behavioural therapy that seems to be successful with lots of other people, actually made my condition worse. Before CBT, I'd had OCD and hypervigilance as part of the side effects of my agoraphobia.  After having the cognitive behavioural therapy, they were worse. Like they were on steroids. 

When I had the honour of having the book launch for what was then my first novel Vile City, the first book in my Detective in a Coma series at the architecturally stunning Waterstones store in Glasgow Argyle Street, I couldn't even enjoy my big night. My doctor had given me tranquillizers and anti-anxiety medication but my nerves were still shot. During what should have been a night of celebration I just felt terrified and wanted to go home. I was constantly in the grip of panic. 

I won a novel writing award but couldn't go to collect my trophy

A few years before that when I won an award for my first crime novel, I couldn't even attend the prize-winning ceremony. Agoraphobia made me a prisoner in my own home and continues to do so. The late great Alanna Knight was going to hand me the prize that night but even knowing that wasn't enough to get rid of the black cloud that was hanging over me. I couldn't attend. 

‘What were you like before you had this wrong with you’ one of my writing friends online recently asked. I honestly don't know because it was so long ago. With something like agoraphobia, once it gets its tentacles on you, it's hard to get it to let go. 

As for the future who knows. It isn't as if I can just snap out of this as it’s a family member once said. If only it were that easy. But at least thanks to a certain actress family and friends know what a struggle things are for me. 

the book trailer for Vile City

 

Vile City crime scene

It ain't Spielberg. 

It isn't even a 5 year old with a mobile phone. 

Here's the book trailer for Vile City. 

Read it and help abducted Shelly get home. 

Vile City is available now, just click here 

#Glasgow

 #crime

 #thriller

 #bookTok 

Out now from Diamond Crime @diamond_crime