A Kidlington Scam

Reported by Paul Humphreys

Summer 2023


KVoice Magazine
A KIDLINGTON SCAM
Reported by Paul Humphreys
Summer 2023



O ne of the quirks when writing a report for the World Wide Web is that the flow of what you want to say is not constrained by the same rigid structures as when writing for print on paper. The Web is not a serial medium. The Web is not linear.

Online, you can jump around.

Or be taken around.

As a reader you can't as easily flick over to the final page of a story as you can with a book: to find out its punchline or learn whodunnit. On the Internet, the true answer could be anywhere — except at the place where a scammer wants to lead you. The scammer's pattern is this: true, true, true, false (gotcha).

Are you with me?

The Web's magic of hypertext allows the good guys — and the bad guys — to juggle with the flow of their story, to play with the order of things they want to present to their audience. The bad guys often start by displaying something that most of us would agree to be true, drawing our attention at the beginning of their scam to what appears to be something recognisable and familiar, encouraging us to believe that their mischievous message derives from an already trusted source.

Let's remind ourselves how hypertext works. I want to use the wizardry of hypertext for a good purpose further ahead in this article.

For illustration, let us now visit the BBC website here and note today's top news headline, then press the back button to return to this article and pick up this same paragraph where you left off. You see what I mean? You can't do that trick by turning the pages of a book. Like a magician, the author of a scam message seeks to misdirect our attention before drawing us in, to deceive us.

That was the BBC website you just visited, wasn't it?

Trust me. It was.

In the following scam message which I'm reporting in this article, its creator — of what I'm calling The Kidlington Scam — uses the same introductory technique albeit in this case their scam was not being delivered to us over the Internet. In this particular scam, the author instead used a neatly laminated paper notice tied to wire railings. It was all very physical and tangible. But their misuse of their paper's main heading was intended to be the first thing we would register in our mind on their pathway towards fooling us. The principle of headline misdirection is the same on the ground as it is from clouds.

At first glance, the notice appears to be from a trusted source as I'm sure you'll agree when you see it for yourself.

I'm going to reveal to you a photograph of the full original scam notice in the next paragraph or so, and I'll do this by means of a hypertext link — so you won't see the scam notice reproduced directly on this page. To see the scam notice, you will need to click on a link to reveal it. There's a reason why I want to present this scam to you in this way: I'd like you to imagine that you were the very first person to have seen this notice in Kidlington, and to ask you to consider how you would report its contents to a friend.

"Hey — guess what I've just seen posted on the railings outside the former Glebe House in Mill Street."

So, what would you say next to your friend? Do you believe this planning application to be true or false?

Okay. You are a scam detective. You are not going to fall for it. And you already know that what follows is actually a scam which had been quickly verified as such by Cherwell District Council soon after its discovery on the railings after which the notice was promptly removed. If you are ready, please click to view the original notice here. What do you make of it? If you were the first on the scene to read it, what would you report about it to others in your list of contacts?

There are several clues in the notice to trigger your suspicion that this is more likely to be a prank and not genuine.

To finish off, I don't know who carried out this prankish scam, nor why they took the time to prepare it and post it. I don't know their motive. What seems far more important is this scam's early discovery by alert Kidlington locals. If any of us were to see anything resembling this notice again, we'd today be even better prepared to take a closer second look before being unwittingly recruited as a voice of the scammer.

Whodunnit is not here.

Attentive Kidlington locals are much sharper-witted. They remain vigilant and keenly on watch. They possess the key to unlock these kinds of scams: they always double-check directly with original sources, before spreading the word.

Paul Humphreys is a long-time resident of Kidlington Village and he's an occasional contributor to KVoice Magazine. Visit Kidlington Voice Online here. Do you have a Kidlington story to tell? Why not share it online in KVoice Magazine?