Poetry File, RTÉ Lyric FM
You and Yours, Radio 4
It’s just a few minutes long, but if you’re looking to press pause in your day, to listen, to buy a little gentle time, then go to Poetry File.
Here are leading Irish poets reading their work. Among them Kerry Hardie, who grew up in County Down, reading her poem Real Estate.
It’s about the “real estate” of a partnership and a family... not about bricks and mortar, but the estate of a love which you share with those you live with.
There is treasure a plenty on Lyric FM and I’m just beginning to appreciate it.
In the harsh world of fraud and corruption, now and then, a modern-day David wins and it feels like justice.
Consumer programme You and Yours featured a woman who scammed her scammer and got her money back.
Melissa Love, a web designer, has a teenage daughter who is a major Taylor Swift fan, aka Swiftie.
When someone called Dave in her Facebook group offered concert tickets he could not use, she jumped.
Dave looked okay – they had seven mutual friends and she needed to act fast as others were equally desperate for tickets. Melissa pictured her daughter’s sad face and sent him £680.
Dave replied, saying he had not received it. He sent a video of his account to show that it hadn’t arrived. He sent a second video but in that one, Melissa clocked that the bank account was in Russian. He wasn’t friendly Dave Shepherd in the local Facebook group.
Savvy as she was and a web designer, she had been scammed.
So she did her sleuthing and used her web design skills to convince Russian Dave that he was in deep trouble – creating a set of official documents including a Banking Act of 1979 and informing him that EU banks could track him down using his IP address.
She tracked him as he tried to scam others and messaged him to say she was watching his every move. She gave him until Monday to put the money back or face the bank’s fraud squad.
And it worked. He put the money back. The scammer was scammed.
Melissa was utterly surprised but relieved – she got her money, although she still had no tickets.
Revenge is sweet.
