Someone in Largs, who has a sky.com email like myself, and whom I saw only the other day in a cafe, suddenly messaged me this week with a sad story.

His niece had been diagnosed with stage 4 mesothelioma cancer - he said - and it was her birthday.

He wanted to send her a gift card but, alas, he was out of town and when he tried to purchase the Apple card online he, to quote him, "got no luck on that".

Ron wondered whether I could go out to a shop in Largs and purchase said gift card and, of course, he would reimburse me. He "awaited my earliest response".

Now, some of you (yes, you, madam) will already have twigged what this message was all about but, being a mischievous devil, I replied to Ron as follows: "Out of town. No access to shops. Have you gone to Madagascar again?"

Sure enough, without replying to my absurd location suggestion, Ron sent another message: "Thanks very much, the total is £200 (denominations in £100 x2). You can check with any supermarket, Co-op, Morrisons, Waitrose."

Now, if I hadn't seen the first red flag, the second was Waitrose. In Largs!

Presuming that an old fogey like me wouldn't know what an Apple gift card was - which I don't - he instructed me as follows, word for word:

"Once you are with gift card, I need you to unpack the cards out of the white packet then take a photo of the back, showing the pin and email me the photo so I can forward to her (the sick relative). How soon can you get this done. Await your earliest response."

Yours truly being an investigative journalist - no, don't laugh - had already established that mesothelioma was a lung cancer contracted by construction workers and "naval sailors".  Hardly a young woman's disease. And, yes, I knew from the outset that it was one of the many scams we receive every day of the week.

When I emailed Ron to suggest that £200 was not nearly enough he responded "yes".  At the time of writing he hasn't got back to me to ask where the gift cards are.

For those who haven't heard about how criminals can hack someone's social media and impersonate folk like Ron, it has become a nefarious scam. Apparently, the gift cards are nearly impossible to trace, refund or recover.

In America, where folk seem to be more gullible (just think Trump v Biden), the gift card scam netted more than 100 million dollars in a six months period. Imposters can use the card details to drain your bank account.

While dealing with the card scam, I had no fewer than four other scams on successive days, with imposters urging me to click on a link or else my email account would be deactivated. CA Control, claiming to be part of Sky security, said the link would "shut down robots or malicious users".

Another, writing to me as Dear Client, stated they would disable my email account to protect against phishing, malware and scams. They did advise that an individual's best protection was vigilance and suspicion. Exactly.

Youse have been warned!

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Thought for the Week: Why, when you lose a sock in the dryer, does it come back as a Tupperware lid that doesn't fit any of your containers?

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An Irish story: A Dublin daughter had not been home for over five years and, on her return, her father cursed her, saying: "Where have you been all this time? Why did you not write to us?

"Why didn't ye call? Can't you understand what you put your old mum through?"

The girl burst out crying, replying: "Sniff, sniff....dad...I became a prostitute."

"Ye what? Out of here, you shameless harlot. Sinner. You're a disgrace to this family."

The daughter said: "Ok, dad as you wish. I just came back to give mum this luxurious fur coat and the title deeds to a ten-bedroom mansion. For me little brother, I have a gold Rolex, and for you, daddy, a sparkling new Mercedes limited edition convertible that's parked outside.

"And I want to invite you all to spend New Year on board me new yacht in the Riviera, and..."

Her dad: "What was it ye said ye had become?"

Daughter, crying again; "Sniff, sniff....a prostitute, dad."

"Oh, bejaysus! Ye scared me half to death, girl. I thought ye said a Protestant. Come here and give yer old man a hug."