Digital Legacy
We briefly touched on this topic at the end of last month’s session. I should have mentioned that we have talked about this topic before. In fact, it is one of the subjects for which I have combined all previous discussions into a single document which you can find on my website:-
https://rogerparr100.wixsite.com/docs
(Note, you can also get to my website by clicking the link on the right of this blog.)
Click on the Computer Club tab and then select the document entitled “Digital Legacy”.
There are many other documents here based on topics which we have covered multiple times at the Club.
Dave kindly took us through a presentation called “Digital Estate” . This is a pdf version of that presentation:-
https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/rjxe84tkyollxsuuwpkpn/2026-03-Dave-Digital-Estate-presentation.pdf?rlkey=zpx9uaey9avqt8wlxcywubkaa&st=u2td4nzm&dl=0
This led to some further discussion around this topic. Trying to summarise all your digital assets may seem quite daunting and you may choose to do nothing. However, giving some thought to this subject and taking some actions could make things easier for those you leave behind.
Rob pointed out that 2FA/MFA which could be codes sent to your phone may also be needed for someone to access your accounts.
Snitcher,space is Shutting Down
At the Club in August and December last year (2025), I talked about a couple of services you could use, Snitcher Space and Ask Silver (see next heading below), to analyse an email to see if it was likely to be a scam – you can read those blogs here:-
https://computerclub100.blogspot.com/2025/08/, and
https://computerclub100.blogspot.com/2025/12/
Look for the heading “Scam Analysers” in both blogs.
Unfortunately, snitcher.space has announced that it will be shutting down its service on 15th March this year.
They suggest an alternative service – EML Scanner at:-
https://emlscanner.com/
This service has a free tier which allows you to scan 3 emails per day, so that should be enough for most people. There are paid tiers which offer more scans per day, more powerful AI and higher accuracy.
Ask Silver
Ask Silver now works on the web as well as on WhatsApp. It can also analyse more than just emails – you can upload any text, image or website and even check a phone number. To use this free service, go to:-
https://www.asksilver.com/
Previously, this service was only available via WhatsApp. If you still want to use it that way, scroll down to the bottom of the above web page and click on Use Ask Silver on WhatsApp.
Gmail Ending POP Fetch
Google has fairly quietly published this item on its Support pages:-
https://support.google.com/mail/answer/16604719?hl=en
The Register published an article on 5th Jan 2026 based on this Google Support page:-
https://www.theregister.com/2026/01/05/gmail_dropping_pop3/
Essentially, the Gmail feature “Check mail from other accounts” is going away. I have previously recommended using this function where people are migrating from another email service to Gmail. It could present them with all the email arriving in the old account in the one Gmail inbox. I have mentioned this at the Club on several occasions, most recently in February last year (2025) under the heading “Changing Email Address”. See the relevant blog here:-
https://computerclub100.blogspot.com/2025/02/
To check if you are using it, go to Gmail on the web at:-
gmail.com
Click on the Settings Cog and click See all settings.
Select Accounts and Import at the top.
Look for the heading Check email from other accounts.
You will see a list of any other accounts you are fetching mail from. If nothing is listed there, you are not using this feature so you are fine.
If you are using this feature, you will have to use another way to receive emails from those accounts. If the accounts allow you to forward email, then you could do that. – note that you will usually need to visit the web version of the email account to set up forwarding. Alternatively, you will have to add the other account(s) to an email app – this could be Thunderbird on a PC or any email app (e.g. Apple Mail, Gmail app, etc) on a mobile device.
POP vs IMAP
The above topic led to a brief discussion on the two protocols used by email apps. The older method is POP which was used back when we only had one device to access email. Now we may have mail apps on phones, PCs and tablets, so IMAP is the protocol now used. So POP is essentially and obsolete protocol. If you want to read more about this, I have since found this excellent explanation on the BlueMail website:-
https://bluemail.me/blog/pop3-or-imap/
Report Fraud replaces Action Fraud
From the 4th December last year, the Police online platform for reporting cyber crime and fraud has changed from Action Fraud to Report Fraud. It is operated by the City of London Police. The website for the service is:-
https://www.reportfraud.police.uk/
If you use the old URL of “actionfraud.police.uk”, it will redirect you to this new site.
The telephone number remains unchanged as:-
0300 123 2024
This article from techUK explains more:-
https://www.techuk.org/resource/report-fraud-service-replaces-action-fraud-as-uk-s-official-fraud-reporting-portal.html
If you have been a victim of fraud, then Report Fraud is the place to go, but, as Brian asked, what if you just want to report a suspicious email. In that case, just forward the email to:-
report@phishing.gov.uk
That email will go to the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) who will investigate, although they will not report back directly to you. Here is the relevant NCSC web page:-
https://www.ncsc.gov.uk/collection/phishing-scams/report-scam-email
How Are Credit Card Details Stolen?
Following the above discussion on fraud, Linda asked how fraudsters manage to steal someone's credit card details. A number of possibilities were suggested. Since the meeting I have found this Aura web site entitled "14 Ways Scammers Can Steal Your Credit Card Numbers":-
https://www.aura.com/learn/how-do-people-steal-credit-card-numbers
Google Search Personalisation
Google Search can provide personalised results, so everyone’s search results might be slightly different. The results can be based on things such as your location and search history. Even if you are not signed into Google, the results can still be based on some of these factors by using browser cookies.
You can check if personalisation is turned on by performing a Google Search, either on the web or in your mobile app. Then scroll down to the bottom. If search personalisation is turned on, you will see:-
“Results are personalised – Try without personalisation”
By clicking/tapping on “Try without personalisation”, it will repeat the search without personalisation. Note, this will NOT permanently turn personalisation off.
If personalisation is turned off, you will see:-
“Results are not personalised”
To turn this feature on or off, do the following:-
- Click/tap on your Account Circle/Picture (top right).
- Click/tap on Search personalisation.
- Use the slide-switch to turn Personalise Search on or off.
In general, you may get better, more relevant search results by using personalisation. However, if you have concerns about privacy you could switch to a more privacy-focused search engine such as DuckDuckGo. On your mobile device you could use the DuckDuckGo app instead of Google. On a PC, you could use the DuckDuckGo browser which you can download from the Microsoft Store, or just switch to the DuckDuckGo search engine in your current browser’s settings.
This Google Support page has more about search personalisation:-
https://support.google.com/websearch/answer/12410098?hl=en
Next Session
Wed 8th April 2026 at 2pm by Zoom
