AssetID: 54808493
Headline: 'I’ll Never Be A Cyber Attack Victim Like M&s. I’ve Never Used Bank Cards, Cash Machines Or Even Emails.'
Caption: WORDS BYLINE: Ted Young With unscrupulous tricksters thieving more than £11billion a year and fraud accounting for 40% of all crime today, it is hard to imagine a life free of scams. Just ask the IT crew at Marks and Spencer where a recent cyber attack is estimated to have cost the retailer at least £300million. But one Welsh man has found the secret to staying safe. David Andrew has never been scammed thanks to his foolproof method; he does everything offline. The farmer from outside Llanfair Caereinion, mid-Wales, uses paper bank statements and physical cash and, extraordinarily, he’s never used a bank card or cash machine. His method seems to have worked. ‘I’ve just always dealt in cash. I have been sent cards for my bank accounts, but I never used them. So they stopped sending them,’ David, 80, says. ‘I can’t understand why banks are pushing cards on people as scams cost them a fortune. We use cash for shopping and cheques for the business. I like to have everything on paper, which I pay a bit extra for because nowadays people like everything on email. ‘As soon as I get a bill, I pay it and stick it in the VAT box. It’s all I’ve ever done,’ he explains. He’s no dinosaur though; all his farmyard machinery and tractors are up-to-date and state-of-the-art. He just likes to live more simply at home. Not only has David never used a cash machine, he doesn’t use email and he’s also never had a passport. Nor has he ever been to McDonald’s or Greggs or Wetherspoons. He’s just not interested. Although he did enjoy a Big Mac we brought for him at his farm. ‘I don’t like spending money away from home. I haven’t had a drink since a pint of shandy last September. I haven’t given up, I’ve just been too busy working,’ he explains. David is still the target of scammers however; he regularly gets called by people claiming to be from Amazon, but he knows they aren’t telling the truth, because he’s never used Amazon. He orders his clothes over the phone, paying by cheque, and he is very happy with his low-tech lifestyle. ‘These systems go wrong and everything comes to a standstill. Look at what happened to Marks & Spencer, who had to pause all online orders following a cyber attack, and all the trouble they have had recently. Nothing can stop me from working,’ he says. Which he does. Hard. David gets up at dawn seven days a week. He has a tangerine or banana for breakfast before starting work. He then comes back home for a fry up at ten (bacon, eggs and beans every morning) and then heads back out to the farm. He works until 4pm, pops back, and then goes out again to feed the cattle before finishing at 7pm. He’s been doing this routine since he left school at 16. ‘My dad didn’t want me to join the family farm. He wanted me to go and work in a bank because I did well at school. But I found I didn’t like sitting down. I’d get fed up with it. After I left school, I bumped into my maths teacher who asked me what I was doing. When he heard I was working for the family he said: “What a waste of a brilliant brain.”’ David’s wife goes shopping once a week after cashing a cheque at the bank, though she now has to travel further due to local branch closures. And they don’t need apps for parking as they rarely go anywhere. ‘The last time I went to a bed and breakfast it only cost about £4. That was on our honeymoon in Ireland in 1969. If I get more than 50 miles from home, I start to wander back. I prefer it at home. ‘It was a lovely break and we were due to go for a fortnight but came back in a week. But we just wanted to be at home. We do live in a beautiful part of the world. ‘The most enjoyment I get is going out to a farm sale or the livestock market. You get to talk to people and I call that a good day out - especially if I haven’t spent any money. I’ve probably saved thousands over my lifetime,’ he adds.
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PersonInImage: David Andrew