A Scam

 This self isolation is having an effect. I am beginning to have feelings quite rare to me. For instance, I am wondering whether life would be worth living if one is totally on one's own? The answer I come up with is a resounding NO. 

The interesting thing is that  when one feels really alone one often doesn't have the wish to contact anyone either- it is as if the batteries of life have run too low and there is not enough 'juice' left to ring anyone. 

And I don't really sleep very well- therefore I finally fell asleep about four o'clock this morning. At nine o'clock I was awoken by a phone call. A man with a strong Asian accent which made it quite difficult to understand him told me that he was calling on behalf of the HMRC Tax Office. He was seemingly calling from a call centre because there was a lot of noise in the back ground. He said that I had been under a random investigation by the HMRC during the last few months and that my tax contributions had been found to be fraudulent. He continued by saying that the phone call was directly connected to the police who were listening in. 

Maybe I should have  realized immediately that it was a scam and  just put the phone down, but it was somehow convincing for a little while- maybe because I had just woken up and not yet gathered my wits about me.  He proceeded to list the 4 charges levelled against me: 

1. Count 1: "Violation of HMRC code"

2. Count 2: "Violation of Her Majesty's Gov. Regulations"

3. "Tapped by Decaption"-( It was virtually impossible to hear what he was saying so I might have got this wrong.)

4. " Wilful Misrepresentation to Government Organization".

The government was giving me a chance to get out of this if I cooperated.  I owed  them  £1280. I objected and said I did not believe that the HMRC would use these kind of  tactics and that normally they would send me a letter notifying me that there was a problem and explaining how I could resolve it. He said that procedures had been sharpened and changed because of the Corona Virus crisis and these were extreme measure that were now necessary. ( He made this sound convincing somehow.) If I did not comply the government would freeze my bank account, I would have my passport confiscated and I would "have a black flag against my name". 

All of this was by now beginning to sound increasingly fishy, as I was regaining full consciousness. 

" So you mean that I have to pay you £1280 right now, without even understanding the charges levelled against me?" He replied that it was not about the money, but he was offering me a chance to escape being black listed and even arrested. I said " I don't believe you". He replied" the police is listening in and an officer will be arriving at your address within 45 minutes to arrest you". I said "Fine, let him do that" and put the phone down. Then I phoned the police. They told me it was a very common scam, and that it had been going for years. It had been particularly successful recently, as people believed that the Covid 19 had really somehow altered the normal procedures.

That is probably the most exciting thing that will happen today. At least I sincerely hope so.

Tomorrow I can start living a normal life again, maybe for a few days? Until they close us all down again. 

I will just have sustain myself by thinking  of happier days- here just two weeks ago in the hills of Bamako with Swedish Eira and Jakarta, Karen's dog.