I got a badly-worded email on April 14, full of what journalists call ‘screamers’ (exclamation marks!! to make the contents seem important!!). The email informed me, as a “dear client of Barclays Bank” (I’m not), that the night time safety system had been cracked!!! To prevent any problems would I please repeat registration of my data. They neglected to add that they would then help themselves to any money there might be in the account.

This is merely the latest in a long line of cons and a not very inspiring one at that. However, someone somewhere will fall for it. So take heed, and if you’ve received any ‘good’ ones yourselves lately, let me know and I will give them some well-deserved publicity.