Re: "'Scammers stole £40k after EDF gave out my number"

On 2025-03-05 18:02, David Wade wrote:

On 05/03/2025 14:47, Newyana2 wrote:

On 3/5/2025 7:15 AM, Carlos E.R. wrote:
>

It is the same in Spain. I live in a biggish city (~200K inhabitants). The bank branches are gone, now I have to walk farther. I'm fortunate, there are still branches at walking distance, villages in the country side may have no branches at all. Maybe not even an ATM.
>
If I want to put some savings in a fund, I have to talk over the phone with someone at their central offices, the people at the branch do nothing, they no longer do it. And the signing operation maybe done on the computer or on the phone, reading unreadable tiny documents on the screen. Even if I go to the office to see papers, I have to sign them on the phone.
>
It doesn't matter what I think about having a smartphone.
>

>
  It sounds like you could live without a cellphone, just as
I can.

 I think you missed the :-
 "Even if I go to the office to see papers, I have to sign them on the phone."

Right.
Saves them scanning the signed papers, then destroying the paper.
But it is an act of faith, because the papers are unreadable on my phone.

It very hard to exist without a Spanish cell phone in Spain. I also own a house there and own a Spanish mobile number as well as a uK one. I got it because the local white goods store won´t deliver without a cellphone number. Most places are the same.

Delivery guys often phone in advance, to know if you are at home. And if not, whether they can deliver to your neighbour instead. Correos doesn't phone till they find you are not home, to negotiate what to do with the package; they often arrive before predicted by Amazon and catch me unawares.
For this they want your mobile number so that they can always reach you.

 The bank branches are closing so I need to rely on on-line access. Again the bank won´t give me on-line access without a cell phone. It wants to send me texts with codes for verification. So when I sign into the banks web site, every time I want to do something "new", it still sends a text to my mobile with a different pin number which I need to type into the web site.

Yep. Some banks or some operations seem to use SMS, others use the banking app.

 

But there are lifestyle limitations. For example, I
can't call an Uber or rent an AirBnB. The cellphone has
become the only accepted ID for those. On the other hand,
I have no interest in either service. They're parasites.
>
   But it's changing very quickly. Apple invented
computer cellphones in 2008.

 Pretty sure I had a Nokia which could send e-mails before that. Whilst not strictly a Smart Phone COMPAQ iPaqs hand held PCs from pre-2000 could take a GSM card and browse the web...

I don't know when smartphones appeared. I know I refused to have one, till I got one. A Samsung Galaxy Mini II. Then I realized there was a market for applications running in a personal handheld mobile device, with access to location.
Most used app, WhatsApp. Then maybe maps. Googling for some place when I am not at home is very handy. Example of location based app: an app that tells me the gasoline prices at all the stations around me, so that I can choose the most convenient or the cheapest today. Some supermarkets have apps with all my receipts, so that the mountain of paper receipts is gone. I can then locate when I bought the fan this summer and claim warranty on it. Some supermarkets are unable to get the app right. I can buy tickets for the cinema before going out, and not printing them. Problem becomes having a good enough phone to hold all those apps.
Similarly, I refused to have a stupid smartwatch, and I am on my second. As with the smartphone, I realized after the first that I needed a more expensive one. Too small or too cheap is rubbish (example of rubbish: not been able to tell the time in the sun; or getting notices when sleeping).

For several years people
told me not to call their cellphone because it cost too
much. Only in recent years has it become a lifestyle
of constant texting and cellphone-everything. Maybe it's
less dramatic in the US
because here the cellphone lifestyle is still an urban
lifestyle. Rural areas just don't have the coverage.
Though Musk may end that limitation with his new
satellite service.

 The lack of mobile coverage in rural UK is also a problem. Many without coverage struggle to use the on-lines services because they need to receive the SMS messages needed to log into banks, government services on a normal connection.

Right. In Spain, it seems to happens to few mountain locked places mostly. But it happens.
Although... phoning a foreign mobile phone may be more expensive than phoning the land line.

   Eventually I suppose we'll have embedded chips,
with ear and cornea implants. All voice activated.
Then we'll all be convening here to discuss the best app
to stop from hearing tampon ads at 3 AM.

 na, it will be low cost cremations to drive you suicidal.

Add apps will be smart and know when you are sleeping or in the loo doing a number 2, thus with time to read something.
--
Cheers, Carlos.