For the fourth time in twenty minutes my mobile rang with some unknown number from Mozambique. The only reason I know this is that my mobile is smarter than me (not that hard really) and when someone calls it actually reads out their name before starting to ring. This normally has me in fits of laughter on a daily basis as Siri tries her best to read Croatia names, especially surnames. So when Siri for the fourth time said “Unknown Caller Mozambique I was intrigued.

With all of my heart and soul I knew it was a bogus call. Just like those spam emails that arrive telling you that your great-uncle in India has died and left you 2 million dollars in his will and where should the money be sent. I knew this call was spam but curiosity got the better of me, so I answered. Before I could say anything a voice started speaking, and the voice was speaking in Croatian. Wow a Mozambican who knows Croatian can’t be many of them, I laughed to myself. The measures that this con-artists will go to is unreal.

“Are you there? Can you hear me? Please help me my grandmother is sick and she needs money for treatment….” That is as far as I got before hanging up.

Now when I say Croatian it was more like a robot speaking and the language was like you’d taught a parrot to speak. Yes, I realise it was stupid to answer the phone and yes I’ll probably end up with a huge bill after the Mozambique mafia use a virus to connect my mobile to a porn website and bleed me dry but I am like a cat, and curiosity just got the better of me.

That then got my thinking. Presumably someone, somewhere in the world actually falls for these spam emails and spam phone calls. I mean if nobody ever paid these con-artists then they wouldn’t do it. It turns out millions of people pay to get the money from their great-uncle in India. Spam, or to give it the full title Self Propelled Automatic Mail, generates huge volumes of cash. The New York Times ran an article in 2015 entitled “Spammers are profiting by at least $65 million per year.” Seems that yes there are quite a few gullible people out there.

My favourite Spam email of all time was “My name is Winnie Mandela. The wife of South African President, Nelson Mandela, and I need to transfer $20 million out of the country because of my husband’s poor health condition.” I laughed so much I even kept the email. I received this in my inbox around six months ago and Nelson Mandela died in 2013. I felt like answering “Now that is a pretty bad health condition…death.” But held myself back. This was probably the laziest spammer of all time.

A few days passed and my mobile rang with Siri again bleating “Unknown caller.” This time it wasn’t my friend in Mozambique but the number did look a little strange. “Another spam caller” I muttered to myself, I ignored it. Three minutes later the same number rang back. Again curiosity got the better of me. I answered abruptly “hallo!” to be greeted by an unknown lady’s voice. “Good afternoon is this Mark Thomas?” I was in two minds whether to reply or just hang up. The number was hidden and this could well be a cousin of my Mozambique buddy. I kept it short “Yes.” She came back “I am calling you from the Split Police Force the technical crimes division.” Now I was listening. She continued “Have you received any calls from unknown numbers outside of Croatia recently?”

Quite clearly this police officer knew about the Mozambique mafia. And I thought she was another con-artist. “Can you tell me if you sent the man any money?” she added. I didn’t even listen to the end of the robot voice but reading between the lines it seems that somebody had sent him money for his sick grandmother. Maybe his grandmother was related to Nelson Mandela.

“Like almost everyone who uses e-mail, I receive a ton of spam every day. Much of it offers to help me get out of debt or get rich quick. It would be funny if it weren't so exciting.” Guess who famously once wrote this. Bill Gates.

Croatia has once again found itself on a “top ten” list and this time it comes from one of the most important American tour operators. Virtuoso has ranked Croatia among the top ten most popular countries to visit, in its overall rankings, as well as in the subcategories of emerging destinations and favourite places for millennial travellers.

According to its Virtuoso Luxe Report for 2019 which polled thousands of travel agencies dealing in luxury travel, Croatia ranked 2nd among most popular emerging destinations (behind Japan), 6th most popular destination for Millenial travellers, and 8th in its overall ranking of most popular places to visit in 2019.

"The US market represents one of the leading overseas markets for Croatia's tourist industry, and this year the country recorded 570,000 arrivals and 1.6 million bed nights by American visitors so far, which is a 23 percent increase year-on-year, so we are happy to see Croatia ranked so highly in the US market," the director of the national tourist board, Kristjan Stanicic, said in a press release.

The price of a one-day Dubrovnik City Card will increase by 50 Kuna, from the current 200 Kuna to 250 Kuna, for next year. The Mayor of Dubrovnik, Mato Frankovic, will propose this new price increase to the councillors at the session of the City Council announced for next Friday, 9 November.

It is also proposed that the price of the three-day Dubrovnik Card from the current 250 will increase to 300 Kuna, while the price of the seven-day Dubrovnik Card will remain unchanged at 350 Kuna.

The Dubrovnik Card allows users to entrance onto the City Walls, use of the public transport, entrance into the cities museums and galleries plus discounts in many outlets.

British tourists have been the most numerous in Dubrovnik for the past few years and this year is not different with more Brits arriving than any other nationality. According to figures just released by the Dubrovnik Tourist Board there have been 1.21 million tourist arrivals in Dubrovnik so far this year. This is seven percent more than the same period last year and the number of overnight stays has also increased, this time by 4 percent with a total of 4.01 million overnights stays in the first ten months of the year.

According to the system of registration and e-visitor booking system, in Dubrovnik in October there were 112,571 tourist arrivals, which is nine percent more than in the same month last year, while overnights were seven percent more than last year, or 365,518.

The top list of countries from which tourists came in the first ten months were traditionally led by guests from the UK, followed by guests from the USA, Germany, France, Spain, Australia, Croatia, Italy, Finland and Canada.

Time for fun before the weekend! Take our Dubrovnik personality test and discover which Dubrovnik fortress best suits your character.

Are you Minceta, Bokar, Lovrjenac or Revelin? Take these ten simple fun questions and discover which fortress you are.

The latest Dubrovnik video out of the LMT Studio portfolio is truly stunning. Entitled “A City of Eternal Inspiration” the video was shot in the ancient Old City of Dubrovnik and follows the it as it slowly wakes up.

LMT Studio have teamed up with the musical composition of Nena Ćorak with the piece “The City Awakes” from the album “A picture of the city.” And features Đive Kušelj on flute, Anis Koncic on violin, Vanda Đanić on cello and on piano Alberto Frka.

Truly a great video – check it out below

It has been a relatively mild and warm start to the autumn period in southern Croatia with temperatures in Dubrovnik in the very high teens and apart from a few days of recent rain the weather has been stable. And this weekend as the warmer temperatures continue we could see a weather record broken for the warmest day in November. The website Dalmacija Danas has reported that this weekend as a warm front is expected to hit.

And forecasts from the Croatian Meteorological and Hydrological Service the weather on Saturday and Sunday will be between 19 and 25 degrees on the Dalmatian coastline, whilst inland temperatures will be between 14 and 20 degrees.

And with the warm front expected to hit on Saturday the temperatures could well jump up into the high twenties. This is close to record breaking levels as the highest November recorded temperature in many Dalmatian cities is around 28 degrees.

In fact it could be a weekend of swimming, yes November swimming in Dubrovnik, as the sea temperature is currently 20 degrees in Dubrovnik and with the warmer air temperatures it might be a possibility to get those swimming costumes out of the wardrobe.

Are there oil reserves buried deep under the Croatian countryside? Move over Qatar here comes Croatian oil. Seven locations in north-western and central Croatia have been earmarked as possible sites of oil and natural gas and the government is inviting interested parties to apply for the right to drill.

The Energy Minister, Tomislav Coric, said that the localities do not include existing fields, or any protected national parks or nature parks.

The government-issued permits for each locality will have a maximum duration of 30 years, which includes exploration and exploitaton.

Coric said that the new permits represent a continuation of previous and that the goal is to find new oil and gas fields suitable for exploration in the continental parts of the country.