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Practical, and
actually readable.
61 guides to the things that genuinely go wrong online. Written for people who want to know what to do, not to be frightened into buying something.
Spotting a scam
How the common ones are built, and what to do when one lands.
Grants, rebates, refunds and appeals
Money you are owed, or money someone needs urgently. Both arrive the same way.
Fake job offers and the task scam
A recruiter found your CV, the work is easy, and the money is real at first.
Buying and selling safely on Marketplace and Gumtree
Most of it is fine. The scams that do happen follow four scripts.
Someone is threatening to share intimate images
Read the first line: this is survivable, it is not your fault, and there is a route out.
Romance scams, and why the advice usually fails
The largest losses of any consumer fraud, and "just be suspicious" has never once helped anyone.
HMRC, DVLA and the government impersonation scams
A refund you are owed, a fine you did not know about. Both are the same trick.
Investment and crypto scams
The returns are the tell. Everything else is just production values.
The Microsoft support call
Nobody at Microsoft knows your computer has a problem. They have no way of knowing.
The "Mum, I have lost my phone" scam
It now arrives in your child's actual voice. The defence is a word you agree in advance.
How to tell a real bank from a fake one
The bank impersonation script barely changes, which is what makes it easy to spot once you know it.
Which email attachments are actually dangerous
Not all file types carry the same risk. Here they are, roughly in order.
How to read a web address
Almost every fake site gives itself away in the address bar. Here is the one part that matters.
Should you click a shortened link?
bit.ly, tinyurl and the rest hide the destination by design. That is the whole problem.
Fake login pages, and why they work
A convincing copy of a sign-in page is trivial to make. What actually protects you is not your eyes.
When not to scan a QR code
Stickers over parking meters, codes in emails, menus that ask you to log in. The pattern is always the same.
How to spot a delivery scam text
The parcel-fee text is the most common scam in the UK. Here is exactly what gives it away.
When it has already happened
Getting your money back, and what to do in the first hour.
Which way of paying protects you most
Credit card, debit card, PayPal, bank transfer. They are not close.
Stopping someone opening accounts in your name
Two free UK protections almost nobody has heard of.
Free trials, dark patterns and cancelling things
The sign-up took ninety seconds. The cancellation is designed not to.
Your phone has been stolen. Do this, in this order.
The first twenty minutes matter more than everything after them.
Getting your money back after a scam
UK rules mean many transfer scams must now be reimbursed. Almost nobody knows the steps.
Passwords and accounts
The changes that actually reduce your risk, in order of what they are worth.
Nobody legitimate asks for the code
One sentence that stops account takeover, marketplace fraud and WhatsApp theft at once.
Why an email can say it is from your own address
Email was designed in 1982 and anyone can write anything in the From line.
The accounts you forgot you had
Every dormant account is a copy of your data at a company that stopped caring about it.
Passkeys, and why they end phishing
The first login method that cannot be handed to the wrong person, because it cannot be spoken.
Set up account recovery before you need it
The hour you are locked out is the worst possible hour to discover none of it works.
Password managers, and the objection everyone has
"All my eggs in one basket" is the right instinct and the wrong conclusion.
Manchester Airports Group Breach: What It Means For You
MAG confirmed a breach affecting 8.8 million customer records from Manchester, Stansted and East Midlands airports.
A company leaked your data. Now what?
A calm order of operations, and the thing most people waste their time on.
Two-factor authentication, ranked
Not all second factors are equal. Here they are in order, and where each one fails.
The habit that actually gets people hacked
It is almost never a sophisticated attack. It is one password used in two places.
Who can see what you do
Tracking, DNS, IP addresses and the devices in your house.
What to actually click on a cookie banner
Reject All is almost always the answer. Here is why the button is hidden.
Getting yourself off people-search sites
Your address, age and relatives, on a website, for anyone. It is removable.
What Google and Apple know about where you have been
One of them keeps a timeline of your life. It is worth looking at once.
Your router is the most ignored device in your house
It runs every connection you make and most people have never opened its settings.
Wiping a phone or laptop before you sell it
Deleting files is not wiping. On a modern device it is easier than it used to be.
What your IP address actually reveals
Less than the scare stories say, more than nothing. Here is the honest middle.
What DNS is, and why it matters to you
The internet's address book. Whoever answers your lookups has a complete list of where you go.
Your phone knows more than your laptop
Twenty minutes of settings, in the order that actually matters.
Your television is watching back
Smart TVs collect more than almost anything else in your house, and the setting is usually buried.
How websites follow you around
Cookies are the part everyone knows about, and increasingly the least important part.
Wi-Fi and travelling
Networks you did not choose, and what is genuinely risky about them.
The Wi-Fi in your holiday let, and the devices in it
You are on somebody else's network, in somebody else's house, with their equipment.
eSIMs, roaming and staying connected abroad
The cheapest option is usually also the safest one. That is unusual, so use it.
Working from a café without leaking your work
The network is the smallest of your problems. The person behind you is the biggest.
Is it safe to charge your phone at an airport?
You have been warned about this a lot. The honest answer is: mostly yes.
Staying private while travelling
Hotel networks, airport Wi-Fi, borders and roaming: what actually needs thought and what does not.
Is public Wi-Fi actually dangerous?
The honest answer is "less than it was, but not safely". Here is what changed and what did not.
Understanding VPNs
Straight answers, including the ones that are bad for us.
Will my VPN work in China?
Probably not, if it is the one you already have. What to set up before you fly, and what nobody can promise you.
What a kill switch actually does
The feature that matters most and gets explained least. It is thirty seconds of understanding.
Are VPNs legal?
In the UK, yes, entirely. Elsewhere it varies, and it is worth knowing before you travel.
Does a VPN slow your internet down?
Yes, a bit. Here is how much, why, and the cases where it is actually faster.
Why free VPNs are not free
You are not the customer. Here is what the business model actually is, and the honest exceptions.
WireGuard, OpenVPN and the rest
Which protocol to pick, in one paragraph, plus why if you want it — including how many devices each one covers.
VPNs and streaming: the honest answer
It sometimes works, it breaks without warning, and we are not going to build a product promise on it.
What a VPN does — and what it does not
An honest account of what encrypting your connection actually changes, and what it leaves exactly as it was.
Family and other people
Helping the people who will not read a security guide.
A friend just messaged you asking for money
It is not them. Here is how to be sure, and what to do for them.
Setting up an older relative so this is less likely
An afternoon of settings and one agreement, done with them rather than to them.
Gaming, voice chat and the friend who is not twelve
The risk is not the game. It is who else is in it and what they ask for next.
Teenagers and the privacy conversation that works
Monitoring stops working around thirteen. Here is what replaces it.
Photos of your children, and who else can see them
Not a reason to stop. A few decisions worth making once.
Talking to your family about this
Controls help. Conversations help more. What actually works at each age.