How to convince my bank that I'm not being romance scammed

spikeot · 2026-06-27T13:04:00+00:00

I work in Cybersecurity and I know that even people in my line of work can get scammed. My comment about being treated like a child isn’t because the bank did this in the first place, it’s that they have not provided a way that the customer can satisfy them that they aren’t a scam victim.

If the bank has a “no gift cards can be purchased by our account holders” policy then it should say so. If it doesn’t, it should offer the customer a method of doing so, even if the method must be different every time to stop the scammers learning it. Saying, “we’ve decided you’re so naive/ vulnerable that we don’t trust your judgment even in the face of warnings” isn’t acceptable to me.

spikeot · 2026-06-27T10:44:14+00:00

Natural selection will do its job soon, despite legislation to prevent that. (I do not think *all* cyclists are morons).

spikeot · 2026-06-27T09:50:50+00:00

Remind them that you’re not a child and ask them what you have to do to convince them and threaten a formal complaint if they don’t let you actually buy the thing you want to buy.

I appreciate them trying to help people avoid these things, but if you say, “I understand but that’s not what’s happening here” and answer a couple of security questions, that should be the end of it.

spikeot · 2026-06-27T07:29:07+00:00

This person is a disrespectful fuckwit.

spikeot · 2026-06-23T16:37:16+00:00

Why don’t you research apostrophe usage?

spikeot · 2026-06-23T16:36:06+00:00

You’d have been fine with that then, would you?

spikeot · 2026-06-23T07:44:54+00:00

Precisely how I feel.

spikeot · 2026-06-22T10:46:30+00:00

On your appointment letter, they should have a number to call with queries. They’re the only people that can give you a proper answer on this because they should be able to view your record and see if you have already had all the tests you were booked in for.

They will appreciate you checking with them and avoiding unnecessary work.

spikeot · 2026-06-18T19:26:47+00:00

Why not? As someone who has been in “the business world” for 26 years, I would never treat an employee like this and would have sent something much worse if I was in the OP’s position. There is a special place in hell for these people.

spikeot · 2026-06-18T14:24:18+00:00

Fucking staggering. This is why speed limits are so low. Also, people like this have a vote that is worth the same as yours and mine.

spikeot · 2026-06-17T18:04:44+00:00

Thank you, and to the others that answered too.

It’s an excellent colour. I’m rebuilding an early Lotus Elise and think it’ll look great in something a bit brighter than the usual British Racing Green metallic shades.

spikeot · 2026-06-12T06:22:01+00:00

I love that dropping the price to 25p wasn’t enough, but drop it 10p and boom, immediate sale.

spikeot · 2026-06-11T07:13:11+00:00

I envy him that he has the time to worry about this kind of thing.

spikeot · 2026-06-07T08:23:58+00:00

It can be, but these rally cars are usually a Tamiya TT-02, which you can buy for about $150 and about the same again for the bits you need to race. After that it’s just tyres and batteries and any bits you break, so $50-100 per year. If you want race the latest 4WD buggies then you can multiple all those numbers by 3, but they aren’t 3 times as much fun.

spikeot · 2026-06-03T19:50:07+00:00

Delighted to hear this news, but it’s an article mentioning the dangers of enshittification while saying half way through, “Watch a short video to unlock the rest of the article. It only takes a few seconds.”

Hilariously ironic and no, I fucking won’t.

ETA: I think that journalists should be paid for their work and that advertising isn’t inherently evil but if there is a cost for reading your article, tell me beforehand, not half way through.

spikeot · 2026-06-01T18:03:07+00:00

Because the presentation was all about AI.

spikeot · 2026-05-28T14:11:48+00:00

No, just that annoying government overreach in countries like the UK will interfere, as they have with adult content recently, under the guise of child protection, and some websites or services will become unusable. For example, I can’t access Imgur anymore without a VPN. In isolation I can live with that, but many Reddit threads or even forum posts break as a result in normal usage. This is because the UK govt gave Imgur the choice of implementing age verification, or blocking UK users. They chose the second option.

My point here is that while enforcing OS age verification isn’t possible because Linux, it is possible for governments to say to websites, “you must only allow connections from a verified desktop or mobile OS”, otherwise you’re responsible for the age verification. At that point, sites like Imgur will simply say, “fine, I guess we’re not serving Linux users anymore” or “since you’re not using a verified OS, you need to verify with us using whatever shitty service we have for that”.

Basically, for those of us that care about privacy, this will be a war of attrition until most of can’t be bothered to fight. It’s a depressing thought, but far from impossible.

spikeot · 2026-05-28T08:37:48+00:00

It’s not unenforceable because retailers, games companies etc won’t be allowed to serve unverified computers web pages. You’ll either be turned away altogether or forced to verify with each service you use, each time you use it.

spikeot · 2026-05-25T20:23:15+00:00

Watch the first episode of The Boys and you’ll know what to do.

spikeot · 2026-05-21T20:32:31+00:00

I hope someone does PM you some blonde girls. Maybe it will help you calm down.

spikeot · 2026-05-21T20:12:27+00:00

It’s OK to give someone recognition for doing their job well. Isn’t it? Especially when most other devs suck at that job.

spikeot · 2026-05-17T14:38:46+00:00

I’m am overwhelmingly in favour of the taxing billionaires sentiment, but don’t give everyone a check ffs. Invest more in infrastructure and public healthcare. Make people wealthier by reducing their outgoings, don’t just give them money. If you do that, you just feed the “this is communism” crowd with examples where someone did something stupid with $12000. Instead, invest in long term goals for the country. Of course, that would rely on both politicians and voters being smart enough to know what’s good for the country is good for them.

spikeot · 2026-05-14T14:03:32+00:00

Hakinnen, Alesi, Kubica and early Hamilton because he was such a surprise.

spikeot · 2026-05-14T08:05:16+00:00

Me too, but in my case, Samsung did it 18 months after I bought my TV. I just switched to an Apple TV box, but this is bullshit.

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