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A Windows on life

You are sitting quietly and the phone rings. “Hello I’m Darren and we are the technical department at Windows… How are you doing today?” Now Darren doesn’t know me and has even less interest in my state of health but anyway he ploughs on. “We have discovered that your computer is running slow and we need to put in a fix to improve the speed” Yeah right Darren, who are you kidding!

Now apart from a disembowelled voice somewhere in the subcontinent, a most unlikely name, and the call being routed through 0208 548 746 in London in order to meet BT regulations on cold calling, could it be Microsoft? Well actually no it couldn’t! There are 1.25 BILLION computer installations running Windows worldwide and if Darren or his boys found a fault and called every one of them personally… well I’m sure you can do the maths.

Having received a second call in the space of two hours I decided on some fun, after all these people are criminals and blackmailers and really need to get a sense of humour.

Remember, what they want to do is take over your computer, install software to disable your machine which they will then charge you a fee to remove, and if they think your data is important it could be several hundred pounds!

The most important thing is NEVER TOUCH the computer within the call whatever they say; and with hands in pockets, then act as stupidly as you possibly can. The older and more doddery you sound, the more excited they get.

You can make up anything. “Yes, I’ve pressed that… the screen now says please enter your password? I can’t remember my password, do you know it? Oh hold on, I’ll go and look etc etc.” They will normally wait if they can hear a drawer or cupboard banging.

I managed to keep one young female fraudster on for almost 20 minutes and you know, she still could not see the funny side. Is this a record or can anyone beat it? Perhaps there should be a town-wide competition and at the end a prize giving at which the Mayor could hand out an award for the longest and most stupid telephone call of 2018.

The serious point here is BT should be doing much more to protect vulnerable people from these scams, rather than using billions of poiunds to fund overpaid footballers’ next Lamborghinis!

I suppose also arguably the longer you keep one fraudster on your call, the less damage they can do to other really vulnerable people. I generally end the call with a loud and long blast from the referee’s whistle which I keep next to the desktop… really just to signal full-time.

John Stooke, Haydon End

Look after your feet

With the expectation of spring on the way, many of us will be going for walks and working in the garden.

People with Type 1 or Type 2 diabetes are no exception to this but they do need to take a little more care, especially of their feet.

Unfortunately, we have found that some people with diabetes are not aware that they need to take the extra care of their feet.

Around 130 diabetes-related amputations take place every week in this country alone, mainly as a result of foot ulcers but 80% of these are avoidable with proper foot care.

So, people with diabetes should have their feet checked at least annually by a trained healthcare professional and should also be taught how to look after their feet themselves.

To try to reduce the risks of foot damage and amputations, the InDependent Diabetes Trust (IDDT) has published a free booklet called ‘Diabetes – Looking After Your Feet’. This is designed to help people to look after their feet by knowing what to look for and when to seek treatment to keep their feet healthy and avoid foot ulcers. If foot ulcers are left untreated they can eventually lead to amputation, which drastically changes a person’s quality of life.

A more active life in the spring can also mean a change in eating habits, so our booklet, ‘Diabetes – Everyday Eating’, which contains 28 days of menus of everyday, affordable meals, and much more, is also useful to help people manage their diabetes.

All our booklets are free. You can obtain copies by contacting IDDT: telephone 01604 6

Jenny Hirst Co-Chair, IDDT, PO Box 294, Northampton, NN1 4XS