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You and Yours: Bioethanol Fires; Future of Rail; Messaging Scam

10/09/2021

Bioethanol Fires; Future of Rail; Messaging Scam

BBC Radio 4 - You and Yours, Bioethanol Fires; Future of Rail; Messaging Scam

As more people return to commuting, why are some avoiding going by train?

As more people return to commuting, why are some avoiding going by train?
The criminals, posing as a member of your family and sending messages aimed at stealing your money.

After a year and a half of working from home, or being on furlough, more and more people are now returning to their workplace.   Busy rush hour traffic has returned in many towns and cities.  But fewer people have returned to using the train to get to work.  While road traffic has almost returned to pre-pandemic levels, the trains are still relatively quiet.  Today, a leading rail industry group is warning that there could be long-term adverse effects on city centres and high streets, if more people don't start using trains again.   They are also warning that if commuters choose to travel by car instead of train, it will increase levels of pollution.   What can be done to persuade more people to return to the train?

You and Yours listeners have alerted us to a new kind of scam, in which criminals pose as close members of their family and send messages.  They ask for money to help them sort out an urgent problem.  One listener tells us how she received messages from a person she believed to be her daughter, who asked her to pay a bill for her.  The messages were very convincing.  Acting instinctively to help her daughter, she paid more than £2,600.   Only the following day did she discover that it was a scam.

There's evidence that people are becoming increasingly wary of online influencers, who recommend goods and services to their followers.  Usually the influencers are paid by companies for endorsing their product, and by law the influencer should make clear if they are being paid.   Increasingly brands are now choosing influencers with smaller numbers of followers, but who are very authentic and more like people you might know.   How is this shift changing the influencing industry?  

Producer:   Beatrice Pickup
Presenter:   Peter White

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