Posts

Posted on

Foodies

There’s a whole group of people in the UK (probably elsewhere too, but we’re just concerned about these) who review restaurants, take aways, cafės and the like on YouTube. We are talking about people/channels like Gary Eats, Greeno, Hannah Ricketts and the like. No links for any of them. If you want you can surely find them yourself.

They all seem to know each other. They talk about each other’s videos and visits to places, appear on each other’s videos and seem very pally. We have always assumed, though we may be wrong, that they all work for the same company somehow.

They are all white and middle class and middle aged (in the widest sense) characters, but each has some kind of angle (was going to say gimmick but I don’t want to be unfair) that makes them appeal to different audiences. Gary Eats, for example, constantly taps on his food. Harrison Webb talks weird slang. Whether they are genuine or not is not clear.

The restaurant videos often follow a similar and we suppose obvious format: the presenter is outside some place, we learn where they are, there’s a pretext why they are there (eg X reviewed it and hated it), there’s maybe a camera person (never seen and rarely heard but referred to a lot). They go in, talk about the place and the menu, order food and drink, eat it, discuss pros and cons including price, then go outside with the receipt to sum up.

They can travel the country, but have been known to go abroad too.

Pages: 1 2
Posted on

Police scam

I was talking to a friend the other day and he revealed that his elderly parents had been targetted in the so-called police scam.

We’ve had this. If you don’t know, someone rings at random, identifies himself as officer (eg) Jonathan Brown at (eg) Highgate Police Station, and there was some problem with your cards/bank accounts/finances, something, and they need more details and so on.

Of course, your initial reaction is to panic. Don’t.

As we have said before, assume anyone ringing is a scammer until they prove otherwise. A voice on a phone saying they are police is not proof.

Don’t give out any information. A good tactic is to say you need to check something (eg your bank account) and you will ring back and what’s the number. They won’t give you a number, and the police station does not exist.

Ring off. Do check your accounts. Then ring 101 and report it.

Then, have a nice day.

We’ve had several of another call recently. In a thick Indian accent: “Hello, this is Jonathan Brown from The Microsoft, how are you today? I am calling about your compuder”

There are so many things wrong, from the number they are calling from, what they say, how they say it, even the fact that Microsoft would never call you. They don’t even know your name. Just hang up.