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The Day My Email Account Was Hacked: A Warning to Others

bruceandholly
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You and I are just too smart to get scammed. Ain’t that true? Course it is. It’s only elderly people who get scammed. We all watch Scam Intercepters. And we’re wise so those telephone calls from Kolkata telling us that our Amazon accounts have been compromised. Or an email pretending to be from our bank and inviting us to resubmit our bank account details.

But this email was not pretending to be from my bank. Nor was it asking for any financial information. In fact it appeared so routine as to be convincing. It was just one of those occasional emails which we get from our email providers inviting us to update our log in details. And of course I fell for it. Next day i started to get telephone calls from various professional contacts querying emails which they had received from this account and which appeared suspicious. That’s when I knew that my account has been compromised. I logged on to my email account and a warning flashed up alerting me to the fact that emails were being forwarded to another account which had been set up in a similar name. I cancelled the forwarding and then tried to change the password on my account. But that was impossible because the fraudster managed to circumvent the two-stage verification process by deleting my cellphone number and substituting the email address of the account which had already been hacked. How scary is that? So I took my laptop to the computer shop at the end of my road. With the proprietor’s help, I was able to get logged in and change the password. Though as soon as I got home and logged on again, I discovered that the email account had defaulted back to the fraudster’s settings. How were they able to do that? Again, I did not receive any alert to my cellphone

So it was all about damage limitation. Whilst I was still able to log into the email account, I permanently deleted everything which I could and alerted my email contacts to the scam. Then I was locked out of my email account completely. It was now late evening. So there was nothing else to do except to take a tablet and to try to get a few hours sleep. Maybe my subconscious could work on it overnight and come up with a solution. That night I dreamed that a family of squatters had obtained a key to my house and set up home. When I protested, most of them left quietly, except one man, whom I had to wrestle out of my front door. When I woke up yesterday morning, I knew exactly what I had to do. First thing was to log onto the Report Fraud website and make a formal report.

Look! I’m not expecting the Metropolitan Police to initiate a major crime scene investigation. The purpose of my report was to create a documentary record of the fraud which will protect me from liability if anyone tries to fraudulently take out a loan or purchase goods in my name. My next step was to contact the email provider, who helped me to get back into the account and change the password. But again, the change was not permanent as I later had to use the two-step verification process to log in again and change that password and also change the settings. That time it worked. So it is still not as secure as I would want it to be

One of the things I’ve always tried to do is to keep all of my accounts 100% separate from each other. I will never use mobile banking. Or set up my cellphone to make purchases. It’s just not worth the risk.

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The Dangers of Eroding Jury Trials in Justice System

bruceandholly

It always disappoints me how easily intelligent people can be convinced to surrender ancient liberties to the State.

We saw it several years back in the ‘Simon Says’ world of the Covid lockdowns, when everyone had to jump to every Matt Hancock command.

“Put a mask on your face. Now clap your hands. And stand 6 ft apart. Do it when the Simon says and you will never be out.”

We’re seeing it again with David Lammy’s published proposals for the scrapping of jury trials save for the most serious charges of murder, manslaughter, rape and other public interest cases. But what is more worrying for me, from listening to phone-in programs, is the way people are beginning to buy into it. Not just retired police officers and prosecution barristers, who would be expected to support any proposal which would make their job easier because a prosecution would no longer have to explain it’s case and convince a panel of ordinary people. It also seems to rest on the premise that anyone who steals a mobile phone from a supermarket is already guilty and just playing the system by electing jury trial. The proposals also belittle the damage which any conviction involving dishonesty or violence can have on someone who’s trying to hold down a responsible job or career. It’s something which will stay with you for life.

When mention is made of the fact that more than 90% of criminal cases already start and end in the magistrate court, it must also be remembered that almost all of those cases involve guilty pleas, in which the magistrates’ only role is to assess the seriousness of the offence and an mitigating factors before determining sentence. Remember also that, unlike jurors, magistrates are not picked at random from amongst our communities but are people who put themselves forward for selection. They are not like you and I. It attracts a certain type of person.

One thing which I’ve always regretted is the whittling away of public involvement in our justice system, first in civil cases leading to the last defamation jury trials and now extending to judge only criminal trials. I don’t trust them. Nor should you.

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Exploring Cornish Metals: A Revived Legacy of Tin Mining – Share Tips from a Micro-Investor

bruceandholly
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The share which is blowing in the wind for me this late November is Cornish Metals. Not that I am expecting a financial return. It’s just something I want to be part of. Like investing in a football club or a steam railway. In fact it all feels to me a little bit folky. Pass me my guitar.

Cornish Metals is working to reopen the South Crofty tin mine, which closed as recently as 1998 and is capable of producing one of the highest grade tin resource globally. In fact tin mining in Cornwall dates back 2,300 BC and South Crofty first began producing tin in 1592. And it’s not just tin. The company also has ambitions to produce copper, lithium, tungsten, zinc and silver. It has a mining license until 2071 and investment from the National Wealth Fund. Take a look at its website

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Share Tips from a Micro-Investor – November 2025

bruceandholly
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Ceres Power Holdings is my star performer for November 2025. A rise in the share price of more than 100% in just over 2 months. Even Rolls-Royce can’t beat that. Which gives me a dilemma. Do I cash in part of my shareholding to lock in the profit? Or do I hold my nerve? Just like playing Blackjack. Another card please! But I’ve got a hunch that it’s gone as high as it’s going to go. So I’d better cash in 50% and play the rest. It’s a mistake I made with Rolls-Royce when their shares hit 200%, and I cashed in 50% of my holding and played the rest. If I’d held my nerve, I might have got 100% of 650%. Because that’s how high Rolls Royce shares have flown. But I’m not complaining.

I’ve never understood why so many people get addicted to online gambling. Playing the stock market is so much more fun. Even when I’m gambling with small change. When Bloomsbury Publishing’s share price increased 100%, I cashed in 50% of my holding. I’m glad I did. After that the share price began to tumble and I sold the rest of my holding a couple of weeks later. I also had lucky escapes with Cineworld and Boohoo

Three months ago I’d never even heard of Ceres Power Holdings, until I was looking for some renewable energy companies in which to invest. I certainly haven’t seen it being tipped anywhere.

At a time when so many major UK pharmaceuticals are planning to upsticks and move their operations to the United States, it is also refreshing to see that some companies are still listing on the London Stock Market. The three new listings are Shawbrook Bank; Beauty Tech and Princes Group. What attracts me about Shawbrook is that it is a bank with a focus on small business finance. And what can I say about Princes Group? Except that I just love a tuna sandwich. So far I have been unsuccessful in my attempts to buy shares in these new listings through my share ISA. But that may only be because those shares are so new. I’ll keep trying.

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Share Tips from a Micro Investor (October 2025)

bruceandholly
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When a share has been tipped, it is already too late. Everybody is piling in. So the skill for anyone with a share ISA is to use their own gut feelings to try to identify those shares which may be tipped in the future. For me, it is not so much following recommendations but that crucial zigzag line. Is it creeping upwards? Or is it beginning to plateau? One of the things I’ve noticed is that the best time to buy a share is about 8.45am on a weekday, when adjustments have factored in and the share price is at its lowest. I also think that it’s important to have an awareness of world events and how these are likely to affect share prices over the medium term. That’s not to say that I’ve never followed up share-tips.

As a fledgling investor in the years before covid crashed the markets, it was an Investors Chronicle tip which prompted me to buy some shares in Rolls-Royce. The value of which has since increased six fold. My only regret is that after they had doubled, I sold about 40% of the stock in the expectation that the rise could not continue. But it did. And more. That was followed by another Investors Chronicle share tip, which prompted me to invest in BAC Industries.

Then came Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. And America’s shakiness over its continued Nato commitment, which Britain had foolishly taken for granted, when its own military capability was hollowed out in the Cameron years. Things like an aircraft carrier without any aircraft because what had remained of Britain’s harrier fleet had their wings cut off. What was the sense in that? It was in response to that dangerous madness that I invested a few hundred pounds in Scotland based Babcock International Group, which I had discovered from my own research and whose share price has also risen

I am an ethical investor. I try to invest in companies which either manufacture in the UK or which source UK manufactured products. It is those companies which create our jobs. Something I don’t understand is why Ed Milband’s green energy revolution is so dependent on Chinese manufactured hardware. It is why, a couple of months back, I looked around for companies which manufactured energy renewable hardware in the UK. I came up with three companies in which I invested. Of those, my most successful investment has been Ceres, which has seen a significant rise in its share price. One of the things I’ve never understood, is why European economies impose ever increasing regulation on their own domestic industries whilst at the same time allowing those same domestic industries to be undercut by countries whose workforce do not enjoy the same employment protections. In some cases even with a suspicion that slave labour has been used in the manufacture of those outsourced products. What is the excuse for anyone importing anything made by slave labour? I’m reminded of the 18th century sugar boycotts. Maybe we should learn something from that. My ethics will also not allow me to invest in banks, finance companies, investment trusts or online gambling. Forget it!

But investing in UK manufacturing or companies which source UK manufactured products, is becoming ever harder to do. I noticed that since Trump’s tariffs came into effect, many UK pharmaceuticals are planning to up-sticks and move their operations across to the United States. I can also see that happening in the future with the UK film industry, which is now facing 100% tariffs from the United States. Only a week back, I invested in Pensana, one of the few companies outside China which specialises in the extraction and refining of rare earths, of which China currently has a 90% monopoly. It is those rare earths which are critical to the UK’s development of it’s own high-tech. Then a couple of days ago, I read that Pensana had cancelled its project to build a UK rare earth refinery because it is getting a much better deal if it relocates to America. I’m not sure how this is going to affect its share price. I might just hang in there and see what happens. At the moment it’s all a bit volatile.

Faced with tariffs not only from America but also from Europe, particularly as regards UK steel production, it would seem to me that the only way our government can protect British manufacturing from annihilation is to use its own buying power to increase the domestic market. By insisting that government departments and others in the public sector, source manufactured products only from UK companies where it is possible to do so in preference over cheaper products from elsewhere. Why not? That is what Trump is doing. And we are seeing it work for the American economy. Our public sector is also in a unique position to do that. Wake up! Ed Miliband!