grifters

Like many, we're in a world of Zoom calls now, with most people able to use it. I suppose we could be worried by the security concerns around the package, alongside everything else, but in the scheme of things it seems a less significant concern that the need to communicate. And 'X popular software has security concerns' is always a winning clickbait.

We've not been beset with problems, although one meeting I was in did allow a suspicious uninvited person as far as the waiting room. We worked out that it was an AI system and soon ejected it. Then there's the little situation of whether Zoom shares any data with, say, Facebook.

That leads towards the number of scams observed in the new world. The more obvious involve simple overcharging for products and services, but there's also a few new "Free Tesco Coupons" style scams too - which seem to me to emanate from Facebook.

Other, broader scams ask us to send all details to a friendly site in Beijing. Then there's the scams directly associated with the virus itself. Phishing and smishing social engineering.

Fake lockdown fines, HMRC goodwill payments, Free school meals... The list of scams goes on, mostly using the old techniques of FUD - Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt, to attempt to put one on the hook.

These are small-time compared with the market gamblers, who are stockpiling their cash and waiting to scoop up cheap shares. No wonder they are all asking the incessant 'are we nearly there yet?' style questions, so that they can line up their bets.

As Government minister, Jacob Rees-Mogg’s investment firm tells their clients it provides a chance to make “super-normal returns”. Somerset Capital Management (SCM), which manages investments in emerging markets, told clients that the dive in stock market valuations around the world since the pandemic took hold had made “excellent entry points for investors”


And now there's the debate about a V-shaped or a U-shaped rebound in markets. Hint: The U-shaped one is a much slower recovery than a V.

And then there's the weirdness from the USA. Now the so-called President is deflecting causality from himself by blaming the World Health Organisation, and simultaneously slowing welfare payments to hard-up Americans by insisting his name is featured on all of the cheques being issued. Electioneering or what?

'Never let a good crisis go to waste,' as Niccolo Machiavelli might have said.