Feisty Hazel saw through scammers I

HE people of Huddersfield are still deeply divided over the wisdom of leaving Europe. More than eight out of 10 would vote the same way as in the referendum, with Leavers marginally more inclined to change their mind than Remainers.

58% are unhappy with the state of withdrawal negotiations, and 53% want the UK to remain in the EU Single Market.

These are the main findings of an exclusive Examiner readers’ poll. I suspect it reflects the views of the nation at large.

Whatever you think about the great Euro-quit, it is indisputable that the government is making a pig’s ear of the process. F I wore a hat, I would take it off to feisty Hazel Joyce.

She’s the Huddersfield pensioner who saw through telephone scammers trying to steal her savings.

The would-be thieves pretended to be from a call-blocking service, asking for details of her credit card.

Quick-witted Hazel, 70, of Grange Moor, kept the company “manager” talking long enough to work out he was a scammer, and then put the phone down.

“These people are so clever”, she told the Examiner.

“He was on the phone to me for over 10 minutes.

“My advice to others is this: don’t let them chat you into anything. I’ve had a friend who was scammed. I don’t want it to happen to anyone else.”

Sound advice, Hazel, and full marks for bringing this story to our paper as a Scarborough warning to readers.

It doesn’t end there. Hazel managed to get the phone code of her scammer – 01855.

Weird. This is the area code for Ballachulish, a remote village in the western Highlands of Scotland, an unlikely spot for cyber criminals to use as their base.

It has a population of only 640 souls, and its only claim to notoriety is a headless horseman reputed to ride locally.

But the villains need not be operating from there. They could be anywhere.

There is no guarantee that a number with a particular local code is physically linked to that area.

I didn’t know that until I looked up 01855. Yet another reason to engage maximum care with unwanted callers.

We all get these calls. I got so fed up with one persistent ringer from India (why is it always India?) that I asked him how good was his English.

Edgily, he replied “quite good.” But not quite the language of ordinary people, I suggested, offering him some choice Anglo-Saxon phrases often heard in the pub, one ending in -off.

Strange to say, he doesn’t ring any more.

This is perhaps a tactic too far for ladies like Hazel.

But it made me feel a whole lot better for about five minutes.