1. We got a new credit card in September, the Santander Zero, mostly for use abroad. The first statement had a payment for £1.49 to a BSkyB related phone thing. Nothing to do with us, so we phoned up to report this. Turns out there would be another £1.49 for the same thing next month. The relevant card was cancelled, and another one sent out.

Postal strikes meant we weren't particularly fussed when it hadn't arrived quickly. However, the second statement did, on Friday. The two £1.49s that were supposed to have been cancelled were still there… along with someone's shopping spree in and around Manchester over three days while we were away at various places for half term. This included two £900+ spends at two different branches of Currys, four £200 or so visits to cashpoints around the city, etc etc etc until they went over the card's credit limit. (Which there was a charge for!)

Incredibly, Santander's fraud detection systems did not pick this up as being suspicious: a new credit card, replacing one known to have had a identity fraud problem, being used to buy lots of big things in multiple branches of the same store, two hundred miles away from the card-holder's home. Hmmm, do you think there might be something odd about that? Had they had a fraction of a clue, they would have been able to catch them: one purchase was for a train journey with a reserved seat.

2. So that's what's going on just across the footbridge (off the bottom left of the picture) over the railway line from us…