In our country we would:

• Shut down the street for 48 hours
• Take 12 hours to talk him out of it
• Spend £5 million giving him a fair trial
• And pay his food and lodging for life

No wonder Chinese products are cheaper than ours!!!!!

The scam informs the recipient that they are eligible for a tax refund and that they should complete a claim form online. An example of the email is below

Tax return 2008 – 2009

2008 – 2009 Recalculation of you tax refund

Local Office no. 182           20/July/2009

TAX REFUND NUMBER:    UK52/288***HMRC29/***

ATTN: Dear Applicant

After the last annual calculation of your fiscal activity we have determined

that you are eligible to receive a tax refund of 344.79 GBP

Your TRN (TAX REFUND NUMBER): UK52/288***HMRC29/***, complete the tax return

form attached to this message.

After completing the form, submit the form by clicking the SUBMIT button on

form and allow us 5-9 business days in order to process it.

Our head office address can be found on our web site at

http://www.hmrc.co.uk/

Note: For security reasons, we recommend that you close your browser after

you have finished accessing your refund status.

- For security reasons, we will record your ip-address and date.

- Deliberate wrong inputs are criminally pursued and indicted.

Sincerely,

Jennifer Brough

Tax Credit Officer

Preston

PR1 0SB

Telephone: 0845 300 3900

Opening hours:

8.00 am to 8.00 pm, seven days a week

A spokesman for the Revenue said: “HMRC would not inform customers of a tax rebate via email, or invite them to complete an online form to receive a rebate of tax. Do not visit the website contained within the email or disclose any personal or payment information.”

The fraudulent email is the latest in a series of scam messages that have been sent out claiming to be from HMRC. Another email doing the rounds is one that claims that HMRC has approved the recipient to receive money.

Email addresses used to distribute the fraudulent emails include:

hmrc@hmrc.taxe-refund.com.uk

successful@gov.uk

customer.office@hmrc.customsoffice.gov.uk

tax-service@hmrc.customs.gov.uk

notify2@hrms.co.uk

refundtax@hmrc.gov.co.uk

TaxRefund@hmrc.gov.uk

service@hmrc.gsi.gov.uk

claims@hmrc.direct.gov.uk

notice@hmrc.gov.uk

hmrc@hmrc.gov.uk

admin@hmrc.gsi.gov.uk

info@hmrc.gsi.gov.uk

no-reply@hmrc.gsi.gov.uk

refund@hmrc.gov.uk

Refound@hmrc.gov.uk

IRS@hmrc.gov.uk

services@hmrc.gsi.gov.uk

service@HMRC.co.uk

British No1 Andy Murray brushed aside Spain’s Juan Carlos Ferrero to become the first Briton since Tim Henman in 2002 to reach the Wimbledon semifinals. Despite a nervy start, Murray took just 1 hour, 45 minutes to defeat Ferrero in straight sets, 7-5, 6-3, 6-2.

Following his epic five set, third round thriller, Murray badly needed a quick and uncomplicated victory to set up his semi final showdown with American Andy Roddick, who himself was pushed all the way by Australian Leyton Hewitt.

Murray has an impressive record against Roddick, winning six of their 8 meetings but isn’t complacent about the task ahead; “Obviously Roddick is one of the best servers in the game, so I will need to return really well”, he said.

The last Briton to claim the Mens Wimbledon singles title was Fred Perry in 1936 and victory against Roddick on Friday will see Murray progess into the final where he will face either Federer or Tommy Haas.

Prospective tenants are being conned out of thousands of pounds in an elaborate internet scam, a BBC London investigation has found.

Fraudsters pose as landlords and advertise exclusive properties at low rents on advertising websites such as  Gumtree and Craigslist. They then claim that they are out of the country and need to see proof that the prospective tenants can afford the rent before they show them the flat. They ask the potential tenant to transfer a payment to a trusted friend or relative through a money transfer agency such as Western Union or Moneygram as proof that they have the funds. The fraudster requests a photocopy of the transaction as proof but than “poses” as the friend or relative and makes off with all of the money.

Gumtree said it was working with the money transfer agency Western Union to prevent the fraud but a spokesperson for Western Union said that their service should only be used to send money to family and friends and not to pay for goods or services.

“Don’t give the receipt or details for a money transfer to any person other than the person who is going to pick it up,” she said. The fraudster would have to provide the control number as well as ID to receive the cash. However, if they managed to create fake ID they might slip the net. “Our staff are trained to recognise ID, but they are not the police,” said the spokesperson. Western Union said it could not offer refunds to the people who have been defrauded by it.

Sisters Alexandra, 19, and Zaire Sheppard, 18, from Holloway in north London, have been victims of the scam.

They saw an advert on Gumtree for a two-bedroom apartment in Belgrove Street in Camden advertised for  £650 a month, plus a deposit of £700.

They e-mailed the owner, who called himself “Lin Dong”.

He claimed he had had trouble with tenants before and wanted proof the sisters could afford the rent and deposit.

Lin Dong asked Alexandra to send a payment of £1,350 through Western Union, not to him, but to a trusted friend or relative of her choice.

He then requested a scanned copy of the transfer payment receipt so that he could verify that she had the available funds.

Some time afterwards, a fraudster using fake identification, pretending to be Zaire Sheppard, walked into a Western Union office with the scanned receipt and took the money.

Alexendra said: “I was put off my guard because I was not asked to send the money directly to Lin Dong – I sent the money to my sister.”

Similar scams have been reported in various areas of London

BBC London checked the origin of the e-mails and found they were all sent from Lagos, Nigeria.

Trading Standards is worried about the increasing number of such online scams, and has warned online listing and money transfer sites to be more vigilant in checking for potential fake listings before they are published.

The news opened with the headline story, the Air France flight, a tragic but newsworthy story. This was followed by, you would think the tragedy at Beachy Head, but NO, the next story was all about Susan F**king Boyle and her admission to the Priory Clinic following her breakdown. I for one don’t care about Susan Boyle’s breakdown but I do care about people who have real problems like the loss of their loved ones. The Beachy Head story received a small mention in the second half of the program.

I remember when news programs were about news but now they seem little more than extensions of the ‘reality TV’ craze that is sweeping our nation. I have nothing against reality TV and watched Britain’s Got Talent (although I must bee the only person in the world who hasn’t watched Susan Boyle), but they are entertainment programs and don’t parade themselves as anything else. News at Ten was once ITV’s flagship program dealing in real news stories but it is now watered down and largely irrelevant. Come on guys, stick to the news and leave the entertainment to someone else.

Piers Morgan said she is a global superstar. She is not, she is nothing more than an average woman with a great sob story while a superstar is someone like Shirley Bassey, Frank Sinatra or Madonna.

On the other hand, dance troupe Diversity who beat Susan Boyle into second place to win the worlds biggest talent show, thoroughly deserved their victory.
The ten-strong dance troupe from Essex and London worked incredibly hard throughout the competition and continually amazed and impressed at every stage. Their routines were original and flawless, but more importantly TALENTED!

Diversity’s choreographer Ashley Banjo was blown away by the result, told Ant and Dec, “When you said our name I thought I was dreaming. Everyone who has voted – you have changed our lives”.
The group have only been together since 2007 but with members aged 12-25 they blew the judges away with their incomparable ‘transformer’ dance routine.
Earlier this evening, Simon told them, “This is the only performance of the night, if we were giving marks, I would have given a ten. It was sheer and utter perfection.”

The group claimed the first prize cheque of £100,000 and will now go on to perform at the Royal Variety Show in front of the Queen. Well done lads, thoroughly deserved.

Click here to view the embedded video.

The video is filmed in such a way that it looks like amateur mobile phone footage but ends with a hard hitting message. Tim Rideout, chief executive of NHS Leicester City, told Sky News: “We know this film is hard-hitting, but so are the numbers of under-18s getting pregnant in Leicester. ”The city’s Teenage Pregnancy and Parenthood Partnership has been successful in cutting the numbers of young girls getting pregnant. ”But to make a long-term difference we need more education on safe sex.”

The video was posted onto YouTube and was viewed by more than 70,000 people before being taken off following a flurry of complaints but a version of the video is still available to view, entitled “Teenage Kicks”,  although it comes with the following warning: 

“Teenagers filming fights on their camera phones is as old as happy slapping, but this footage from a school in Leicester is pretty shocking by anyone’s standards.”

Click here to view the embedded video.

Despite the numerous protests, the video has attracted some support and praise with one viewer commenting; “I think you lot are beginning to take this problem seriously”. Another said the footage “looks scary” but is “a good idea”.

The trust claimed it decided to take the shock approach after the young people it asked said they wanted something memorable to get the message across.

While there is little doubt the video fulfils that objective, it is likely to be some time before we know whether the project will succeed in reducing pregnancy rates.

Looks like the hoax is back again but this time in an enhanced and graphical format -

Or, alternatively, you may receive the text based version which is much like previous renditions -

Take a closer look and you will quickly realise why the new emails are just as much of a hoax as the previous ones!

Firstly, the email address hasn’t changed and still says it is from an Anna Swelung. If you check with Sony Ericsson they will tell you that Anna Swelung doesn’t even work for them.

Secondly, if you Google for the T18 or R320 you will find that they are not laptops, they are mobile phones!

Finally, the very fact that the message asks you to forward it onto your friends like a chain letter should be a red flag as this is a very common part of email hoaxes.

BUT, if anyone is lucky enough to get one, let me know!!!

Here’s the official word from Sony Ericsson

Job location: Beach in Jamaica

Salary: $5/week

No of people needed: 3

No of applicants (so far) 6,437,943

Duties: Assisting girls onto horses bareback.

Summer is almost here. To celebrate this many supermarkets are giving away free barbecues to all that can go and collect them. (Some stores may charge a £1 administration fee).

All BBQs come with a higher shelf which can be used to keep things warm. You can get your free BBQ from any of the following stores.

ASDA

Morrison’s

Costco

Somerfield

Aldi

Sainsbury

Tesco

Iceland

Lidl