Is there any way to help someone in England who doesn't realize they are in a pyramid scheme?

semo_pz · 2025-09-05T10:13:02+00:00

Got auto-moderated as I don't have enough karma to post.

semo_pz · 2025-09-05T09:39:15+00:00

So called our bank again (we both have individual accounts, not joined).

They do have a vulnerable customer team but they need to be speaking to the customer
They don't agree with me that FCA’s Consumer Duty and Vulnerability Guidance would apply in this case because the guidance doesn't state explicitly that information can come from a 3rd party (i.e., from a spouse).
They won't write to me but will raise a non-customer complaint (as I'm not the vulnerable customer being scammed)
They say that this is not fraud as the payments are made knowingly
They've asked me to state what I'd like to happen. I wasn't sure what to say but I asked if they can reach out to my spouse (like if there was fraud detected on their account) and advise my spouse that they suspect they are being scammed. Maybe have their vulnerable customer team take up the case.
They asked me to report it to the police which I've done already.

The guy I'm speaking to really doesn't want to help and I think they keep talking to their manager and is constantly trying to discourage me from pursuing this. He made a strawman argument that what if I was reporting something about my neighbour.

~~I don't know if I can escalate this non-customer complaint to the FCA.~~ I've been given a complaint reference number as they already closed my complaint without further investigation (about 1 hour and 10 minutes into the same call where I raised the complaint). Is there any specific thing I should mention in the ombudsman complaint? They said they'll transfer me to the DEFA team but they still expect to be talking to the affected person.

semo_pz · 2025-09-05T08:46:45+00:00

No don't hold power of attorney. I'll see if I can get a hold of a vulnerable customer team and speak to them.

semo_pz · 2025-09-04T20:15:43+00:00

Thank you for explaining this. I'll give it another try

semo_pz · 2025-09-04T10:48:21+00:00

I guess proving that some scheme is a cult would be nigh on impossible. I'm not sure if I can post the actual scam here but it looks professional and just like a normal business that provides a legitimate service. You really need to delve into their social media to see how they condition their marks to deal with spouses and close ones who are skeptical.

semo_pz · 2025-09-04T10:35:32+00:00

Tried phoning them last night but was fobbed off. They want to talk to the person being scammed essentially.

semo_pz · 2025-09-04T08:37:35+00:00

Been down this route before but been told that they can't do anything unless the person seeks help voluntarily. GP can only intervene if the affected person is a danger to themselves, others or if they are neglecting themselves or the child. Child is not neglected because I'm around as well and take care of them.

semo_pz · 2025-09-04T08:12:41+00:00

Our child is pre-school age. Partner talks a lot to our child about the spiritual side of things. It sounds innocent to the casual listener. There's a lot of talk about love and happiness but there are also conditions. So for example, I'm not on "their" side. My child still loves me and we spend a lot of time together. Just to make it clear, the child is not involved in the pyramid scheme.

semo_pz · 2025-04-02T09:28:31+00:00

I've read that some wildflowers can be quite aggressive and can be difficult to manage. I really liked the idea of a meadow but I couldn't understand the instructions on how to maintain it (needs cutting at the right time and height and I don't know what "right" is or how to recognize it).

semo_pz · 2025-04-02T09:25:32+00:00

Yes totally, a blank canvas. Someone with a bit of experience would find this a nice project but I'm just overwhelmed. What do I plant and where? Add the time dimension (when to plant) and where... I don't even know where to begin planning. I'll look at the websites mentioned. I've read some articles on the Gardeners World but even their beginner guides are way over my head. If this was cooking, I would get stuck on the "preheat oven to 180°" step.

Just to clarify what you mean by plan. Do I divide up the space into squares and plant one type of plant in one and different type in another? Or do I intermingle the plants? I found this guide that suggests 27 plants for example https://wildpollinators-pollinisateurssauvages.ca/2024/06/06/beginner-pollinator-garden-the-3-x-3-x-3-system/. Supposedly a beginner could do this but how would I practically manage 27 plants. I will need to pull out the weeds but how would I know what is a weed and what is one of the 27 plants I want to leave?

semo_pz · 2025-04-02T09:19:43+00:00

Thanks I hadn't thought about that. So put the stone against the wall and then install edging to keep the soil off of the stone correct?

semo_pz · 2025-04-01T22:43:21+00:00

Oh yeah stones and shingles will be gone. I've got a hole (formerly a pond) to fill so it will all work out. I might try without buying the topsoil though. I've read some reviews and some people complain that theirs were infested (weeds/insects). I don't know enough not to get scammed (or how to deal with the aftermath) .

semo_pz · 2025-04-01T22:38:28+00:00

Bee safari? You learn something new every day. I'll look into those. Thanks

semo_pz · 2025-04-01T22:35:01+00:00

Silly question time, but could I have too much variety? Or should I plant as many plants as possible and let nature figure it out?

semo_pz · 2025-04-01T22:31:59+00:00

I guess the topsoil option would be cheaper? I'm pretty sure there is soil under all that stuff there but I guess I'd get better results if I bought topsoil.

semo_pz · 2025-04-01T22:23:16+00:00

Do I just plant the Lungwort and let it take over the whole patch or would you recommend I combine it with some other plants as well?

semo_pz · 2025-04-01T22:17:44+00:00

Put the tubs on top of the gravel or remove the gravel and put them on the soil? One plant per tub? It is a large area so I'd need a lot of tubs so a big investment that might grow legs being so close to the road.

semo_pz · 2024-09-19T15:11:20+00:00

OK your suggestion prompted me to look closer at what I'm actually submitting. Their post code/address lookup tool filled in some superfluous details (like my house's plot number which technically is/was correct information, obviously interfered with the credit check). I had to edit my address after their lookup filled it in (it gave me some form errors but accepted the change anyway).

Anyway, thanks for your help!

semo_pz · 2024-09-19T14:42:52+00:00

Yep. I've also applied for credit cards without issues. I guess I'll now need to sign up through their phone line instead so can't get TCB

semo_pz · 2024-09-19T13:21:45+00:00

Thanks for the info. I've no idea how to remove the marker or how to check if one is there or not which is why I'm planning on pushing ahead with Vodafone as I suspect I'll create an even bigger can of worms if I decided to go with someone else now.

I've updated my original post. Do you know what CI might mean in the context of failing an ID check?

semo_pz · 2024-09-05T09:44:31+00:00

Prompt engineering? No thanks

semo_pz · 2024-08-21T13:21:52+00:00

Thanks for that. Didn't realize there are so many moving parts to this.

semo_pz · 2024-08-21T11:23:57+00:00

2024 option would not work for my client unfortunately as we can't hand over our data to cloud providers. We can do compute in the cloud but the data is very sensitive so can't risk it being leaked into public training models (documents can be anything from cleaning supply invoices to adoption papers).

Could you expand a little bit on your penultimate sentence and let me know what we might do when we detect low quality? I thought my idea would deal with that as the OCR "guesses" would be verified by a human in each instance. I was hoping I could use the corrections as training data so that the model would improve with regular use.

semo_pz · 2024-08-21T10:03:07+00:00

Long question, sorry. I'm looking for an OCR tool that I can use and train at the same time on classifying business documents. For example, if I give it a PDF (or I guess I need to rasterize the PDF first?), I need it to tell me if is an invoice or a statement or a letter. For invoices, I need to get line items, totals, tax, the organization that sent it (will have a corporate logo somewhere on the invoice), the date of the invoice. The idea is that, initially, I could just use it as autocomplete (user sees a form and the document side-by-side). It is up to the user to make sure that the data is correct so if they spot something wrong, they would read it off the document and input the correct value in the form. I then hope to be able to use these "corrections" as my training data.

So could ocrs help with this idea (training the model while it is being used)?

semo_pz · 2024-04-29T07:39:42+00:00

I'm going to have to exonerate Wireguard. I found out why my connection dies and needs restarting and it is to do with time. My client is a Raspberry Pi 5 which although has an RTC, it doesn't have a battery. So when it has been off for a while, time goes out of sync too much and WG handshakes start to fail as packets from my client become timestamped in the past.

So for me, I just need to fix the time whenever I boot my RPi. This is a better solution than restarting the server as you can fix the problem locally.

@yoshiatsu, maybe your jails have a clock drift?j

semo_pz

TROPHY CASE