Wayne May ScamSurvivors.com

I handed over my card and it was declined! "That happens sometimes when you try to blip it. It'll work if I do the PIN". Sure enough, it did. Lo and behold, the couple wearing joggers/t-shirt and a TEMU dress managed to pay their bill when the guy in the fancy suit couldn't.

Next to us was a group who were bragging to each other about how much money they were making. When the bill came, one said "Don't worry, I've got this" and handed over his credit card, which was promptly declined. Three times! In the end, someone else had to pay the bill for him.

You know how you read a story online and go "Yeah, there's no way that's true"? This was one I never believed until it actually happened right next to me.

My wife and I were recently at a pub having a meal. It was quite a bit fancier than what we usually go for, but it was a special occasion.

When you have an hour to burn and pass a tattoo place that does walk ins. To explain, the red is the "Red Seal Of Truth" the scammers always add to their fake documents, and the S is from our site logo. You can just about see the bottom of the previous tattoo on the picture too.

Here's a new one I'm seeing in mass sent romance scam emails:

"What's your name? And what country are you from?
Also, to find out if you're real, tell me how many colours are in the spectrum."

Going to be on BBC Radio Cumbria in a bit talking about romance scams. It'll be the usual get as much info as I can in in the 5 minutes I have thing.

Fake Donate to Charley Kirk's Burial Scam. No matter your political belief, this should leave you outraged.

www.scamsurvivors.com/forum/viewto...

Got a new tattoo today. You may recognise the subject. It'll take a couple of days until it looks its best, but I'm really pleased with how it came out.

@aleenaartist.bsky.social Do you like this picture I drew of you? Did I say you? Sorry, I meant Emma Laui, the actual person in your profile. Stolen "drawings" and a stolen profile pic. Seems the fake "artists" have turned up here as well now.

Went to see The Roses today. The original is better by far, though it's not a bad movie if you haven't seen it. Time to dig out the DVD and watch that version.

My write up on BSides Bournemouth.

scamsurvivors.com/forum/viewto...

The toughest captcha I've ever seen.

If you run a PHPBB forum and are experiencing an overwhelming number of bots, I'd recommend reading www.phpbb.com/community/vi... It seems it's a pretty common thing right now.

Over a MILLION unique visitors in the past 24 hours!

Using Cloudflare means we can turn on "under attack mode" when it happens, so we can keep running. Someone out there clearly doesn't want us posting up scammer information, but we're not going to stop.

It only took a few days for me to completely break the new forum by installing a plugin. Thankfully I still had the admin panel running in another tab and was able to delete it there. We're still dealing with DDoS attacks though. At one point the forum had over 10k "visitors" before crashing.

We're 99.9% sorted on the new site. There are a few leftovers from the old server/software, but these are just minor things. What hasn't helped was the fact we were being hit by a DDoS attack at the same time that we were doing all these changes. Someone apparently didn't want the site working.

After what seems like a lifetime, we've finally moved our site to the new server and upgraded everything. There's still a few kinks to iron out, but on the whole everything is working as it should. If you receive a scam email, you can post it on scamsurvivors.com/forum/index.... to warn others.

I don't know if this was intentional or not, but it made me laugh.

Decided to buy some upgrades for my PC in the Ebuyer sale. New motherboard, CPU and RAM. Guess what my plan is for tomorrow once everything's arrived. The bits I'm removing, along with some spare bits I have and a new case will make a nice PC I can sell on to recuperate some of the money.

If you want to see the full schedule, you can find it at bsides-bournemouth.org/schedule.html

South Carolina Combats Prison Sextortion with New Laws, Technology, and Public Warnings COLUMBIA, S.C. — A South Carolina inmate using a contraband cell phone to extort a young Michigan man who later died by suicide has reignited national urgency

www.wrhi.com/2025/07/sout...

I remember we first started talking about this back in 2014. Nice to see them finally take action.

scamsurvivors.com/forum/viewto...

Had an email last night saying my talk had been accepted for BSides Bournemouth. Time to make a few subtle changes to it. I'm thinking this time of adding in the only time I ever lost it laughing during a scammer call, but in all fairness you'll understand why when you hear it!

I know MenKind sell that particular one. They're £25. I don't do tea either, but have a few mugs and a tankard I use for cold drinks.

The first person to contact us regarding sextortion was in May of 2012, yet a number of sites are using the steps we started creating way back then and claiming it as theirs. Even law enforcement aren't immune from this, some quoting us verbatim. Small rant after reading some reddit comments.

a red dragon on a green and white flag ALT: a red dragon on a green and white flag

Croeso BSides Aberystwyth, bydded i ni fod y cyntaf i'ch croesawu a phob lwc ym mis Tachwedd!
bsidesaberystwyth.org

#Security #BSides #Aberystwyth #BSidesAberystwyth

We (and by "we" I mean someone I'm paying) are currently in the middle of upgrading our site and moving it to a better server. Once it's done we're going to have all the latest software updates and a new and improved forum. The old system has done us proud, but it's time to move onward and upward.

That's not counting the well over an hour to download and copy them across in the first place. It downloaded the entirety of Europe's maps when all I needed was the UK, no choice. Then there's having to create an account to activate the apps. Now hopefully I can drive and enjoy it in peace.

When I bought my first car, all I had to do is put the key in, turn it on and drive it home. I have spent hours having to do software updates and account registrations to get this one up to date. I had to sit in the car for over an hour just to import the new firmware and maps from a USB stick.